French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, allege that a popular conservative Christian commentator defamed them by claiming the First Lady is a Transgender woman

Written By EEW Magazine Online News Editors

*A legal battle unfolds between France’s First Couple and a high-profile American Christian commentator. (EEW Magazine Online)*

Key Facts:

French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron have filed a 22-count defamation lawsuit against conservative Christian commentator Candace Owens in Delaware.
The suit centers on Owens’ repeated claims, including in a YouTube series, that Brigitte Macron was born male under the name of her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux.
Owens denies wrongdoing, calling the lawsuit a violation of her free speech rights and asserting she was never formally served with evidence or notice.

(EEW Magazine Online) French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, have filed a defamation lawsuit against conservative Christian commentator Candace Owens, accusing her of spreading false claims that Brigitte Macron was born male and other damaging falsehoods to boost her media profile and profits.

The 22-count complaint, filed Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court, alleges Owens waged a "relentless year-long campaign of defamation" through social media posts, podcast episodes and an eight-part YouTube series titled "Becoming Brigitte" that has garnered more than 2.3 million views.

The suit claims Owens falsely asserted that Brigitte Macron, 72, was born male under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux — her older brother's name — and transitioned to female, among other accusations. According to the legal complaint, Owens escalated her claims that the first lady is a Transgender woman over the past year through social media posts, podcast episodes, and the YouTube series.

"Ms. Owens’ campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety," the Macrons said in a statement through their attorney, Tom Clare of Clare Locke LLP. "We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused."

The Macrons said they sent multiple demands for retraction, accompanied by "incontrovertible evidence" disproving the allegations, beginning in January and continuing for about a year, but Owens ignored them and continued promoting the claims, including through merchandise sales.

Owens, who has more than 6.9 million followers on X and 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, denies ever receiving any such evidence or any wrongdoing, framing the suit as an assault on free speech.

In a podcast episode responding to the filing, she called the lawsuit "littered with factual inaccuracies" and "an obvious and desperate public relations strategy" to smear her character. "This is all the proof you need," Owens said of the suit, suggesting it validated her claims, and addressed Brigitte Macron directly: "You are literally making history in all the wrong ways."

A spokesperson for Owens told Reuters: "This is a foreign government attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist." Owens also claimed she had sought comment from Brigitte Macron before airing her episodes but received no response, and learned of the lawsuit through media reports rather than formal service.

The Macrons are seeking punitive damages, actual damages for "substantial economic" harm including lost business opportunities, and injunctive relief to halt further statements. As public figures, they must prove under U.S. law that Owens acted with "actual malice" — knowing the statements were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.

The controversy echoes similar rumors that surfaced in France in 2021 and were amplified internationally by Owens starting in March 2024. Brigitte Macron previously won a defamation case in Paris against two women who spread comparable claims, but an appeals court overturned the convictions this month, ruling the statements were made in "good faith"; she has appealed to France's highest court.

France's Élysée Palace described the lawsuit as a "private affair" and declined to comment. In a March 2024 event in Paris, Emmanuel Macron addressed such rumors broadly, saying: "The worst thing is false information and fabricated scenarios, with people who end up believing them and disrupting your life, including your privacy."

The origins of Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron's relationship have long been a source of public scrutiny and debate, primarily due to the significant age difference and the circumstances under which they met. The couple first encountered each other in 1993 at La Providence, a Jesuit high school in Amiens, northern France, where Brigitte, then 40 and married with three children, taught drama; Emmanuel was a 15-year-old student participating in her theater workshop alongside her daughter Laurence, who was in his class.

Critics have pointed to the inherent power imbalance in a teacher-student dynamic, raising concerns about potential exploitation or grooming, though the Macrons have consistently maintained that their bond developed gradually and consensually after he reached France's age of consent, which is 15.

Watch Candace Owens respond to the lawsuit below:

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