The couple seeks an unspecified amount in damages.
Conservative commentator and podcaster Candace Owens was sued for defamation on July 23 by French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, over Owens’s claim that France’s first lady is a man.
The couple filed the 22-count complaint in Delaware Superior Court against Owens, Candace Owens LLC, and her website operator, GeorgeTom Inc., seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
The lawsuit said that in March 2024, Owens “told the world she ‘would stake [her] entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man.’”
“Since then, Owens has used this false statement to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money,” the complaint said.
“Owens disregarded all credible evidence disproving her claim in favor of platforming known conspiracy theorists and proven defamers. And rather than engage with President and Mrs. Macron’s attempts to set the record straight, Owens mocked them and used them as additional fodder for her frenzied fan base.”
The lawsuit focuses on the eight-part podcast series “Becoming Brigitte,” helmed by Owens, which has more than 2 million views on YouTube, as well as X posts linked to it.
According to the Macron family, the series is based on “outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions” about the Macrons, including that the first lady “was born a man, stole another person’s identity, and transitioned to become Brigitte.”
The complaint said the series also included the allegations that the Macrons are “blood relatives committing incest,” that the president was chosen to lead France “as part of the CIA-operated MKUltra program or a similar mind-control program,” and that the couple are “committing forgery, fraud, and abuses of power to conceal these secrets.”
“These claims are demonstrably false, and Owens knew they were false when she published them,” the lawsuit stated. “Yet, she published them anyway. And the reason is clear: it is not the pursuit of truth, but the pursuit of fame,” the complaint states.
Owens acknowledged the lawsuit during an episode of her podcast on July 23 but said it is “littered with factual inaccuracies,” though she said she had not yet had time to read it all.
