French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, are taking legal action in the United States against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has publicly claimed Brigitte was born male. The Macrons' attorney, Tom Clare, told the BBC that the couple plans to present both photographic and scientific evidence in court, including pictures of Brigitte Macron while she was pregnant, to disprove the allegations, describing the experience as both distressing and an unwelcome "distraction" for the French president.
Owens, who has millions of followers online, made the accusation last year and declared she would stake her "entire professional reputation" on it. At the time, she alleged that Brigitte Macron was actually a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux—a real person who's actually the French first lady's older brother, per the Guardian. The claim itself originated within fringe internet communities, gaining prominence via a 2021 YouTube video by French bloggers. The Macrons won a related defamation case against those bloggers in France last year, but the verdict was recently overturned on free speech grounds. That decision is under appeal.
In July, the Macrons filed suit against Owens in Delaware, arguing she "disregarded all credible evidence disproving her claim in (favor) of platforming known conspiracy theorists and proven defamers." Owens' legal team has moved to dismiss the suit, contending it shouldn't be heard in Delaware and would cause her significant hardship. Owens has previously insisted she believes in the truth of her statements and frames the matter as an issue of free speech. She has also claimed the Macrons used their suit to bully a reporter into submission, per Politico. To prevail in a US defamation case involving public figures, the Macrons must show that Owens acted with "actual malice"—that is, she either knew her statements were false or recklessly disregarded the truth.
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