The couple seeks an unspecified quantity in damages.
Conservative commentator and podcaster Candace Owens was sued for defamation on July 23 by French President Emmanuel Macron and his spouse, Brigitte Macron, over Owens’s declare that France’s first girl is a person.
The couple filed the 22-count criticism in Delaware Superior Court docket towards Owens, Candace Owens LLC, and her web site operator, GeorgeTom Inc., searching for an unspecified quantity in damages.
The lawsuit mentioned that in March 2024, Owens “instructed the world she ‘would stake [her] whole skilled popularity on the truth that Brigitte Macron is the truth is a person.’”
“Since then, Owens has used this false assertion to advertise her impartial platform, achieve notoriety, and earn cash,” the criticism mentioned.
“Owens disregarded all credible proof disproving her declare in favor of platforming recognized conspiracy theorists and confirmed defamers. And moderately than interact with President and Mrs. Macron’s makes an attempt to set the file straight, Owens mocked them and used them as extra fodder for her frenzied fan base.”
The lawsuit focuses on the eight-part podcast sequence “Turning into Brigitte,” helmed by Owens, which has greater than 2 million views on YouTube, in addition to X posts linked to it.
Based on the Macron household, the sequence is predicated on “outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions” in regards to the Macrons, together with that the primary girl “was born a person, stole one other individual’s id, and transitioned to turn into Brigitte.”
The criticism mentioned the sequence additionally included the allegations that the Macrons are “blood kin committing incest,” that the president was chosen to guide France “as a part of the CIA-operated MKUltra program or an identical mind-control program,” and that the couple are “committing forgery, fraud, and abuses of energy to hide these secrets and techniques.”
“These claims are demonstrably false, and Owens knew they have been false when she printed them,” the lawsuit states. “But, she printed them anyway. And the reason being clear: it’s not the pursuit of reality, however the pursuit of fame.”
Owens acknowledged the lawsuit throughout an episode of her podcast on July 23 however mentioned it’s “plagued by factual inaccuracies,” though she mentioned she had not but had time to learn all of it.
Brigitte Macron was a 39-year-old married mom of three when she met Emmanuel Macron—then a younger teenager—whereas instructing at the highschool he attended. The couple married in 2007.
The lawsuit said that hypothesis relating to Brigitte Macron’s gender started surfacing on social media in 2021 and that it has since been mentioned by influential commentators, together with Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson.
The allegation included that Brigitte Macron was born a male named Jean-Michel Trogneux, the precise title of her older brother, the Macrons mentioned.
Owens has perpetuated such “lies” in her sequence, the lawsuit said.
“These lies have precipitated super injury to the Macrons,” the criticism said. “Defendants have subjected the Macrons to a marketing campaign of worldwide humiliation, turning their lives into fodder for profit-driven lies. Owens has dissected their look, their marriage, their pals, their household, and their private historical past—twisting all of it right into a grotesque narrative designed to inflame and degrade. The result’s relentless bullying on a worldwide scale.”
The Macrons mentioned that confronted with this “relentless and unjustified smear marketing campaign,” they have been “left with no selection however to hunt aid … to set the file straight, stop additional hurt, and maintain Defendants accountable for his or her conduct.”
In responding to the criticism, Owens mentioned on her podcast that she was being “sued by the primary girl man of France” and described the lawsuit as an “apparent and determined public relations technique.”
She mentioned her attorneys had been talking with attorneys for the Macrons since January however that the latter didn’t give Owens’s attorneys “a heads up that they have been submitting a lawsuit.”
A spokesperson for Owens mentioned in a press release to the media that the lawsuit is an effort to bully her, after Brigitte Macron rejected Owens’s repeated requests for an interview.
“It is a overseas authorities attacking the First Modification rights of an American impartial journalist,” the spokesperson mentioned.
This isn’t the primary time Brigitte Macron has sued for defamation over claims that she was born male.
In 2021, France’s first girl sued two girls, Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey, accusing them of spreading the allegation on social media.
A decrease court docket in September 2024 discovered the 2 girls responsible of defamation and ordered them to pay damages to each Brigitte Macron and her brother; nonetheless, a Paris appeals court docket overturned the convictions in July after discovering that their feedback didn’t represent defamation and have been made in good religion, representing free speech.
Brigitte Macron is at the moment interesting that call with France’s highest court docket.
The French Embassy in the US couldn’t be reached for remark.
When you discovered this text fascinating, please contemplate supporting conventional journalism
Our first version was printed 25 years in the past from a basement in Atlanta. Immediately, The Epoch Instances brings fact-based, award-winning journalism to hundreds of thousands of Individuals.
Our journalists have been threatened, arrested, and assaulted, however our dedication to impartial journalism has by no means wavered. This 12 months marks our twenty fifth 12 months of impartial reporting, free from company and political affect.
That’s why you’re invited to a limited-time introductory provide — simply $1 per week — so you may be part of hundreds of thousands already celebrating impartial information.
