DELAWARE – French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron filed a defamation lawsuit against conservative podcaster Candace Owens on Wednesday after she made numerous claims that Macron’s wife was born a man.
The 22-count complaint was filed in Delaware Superior Court in the US and seeks an unspecified amount of damages from Owens, who broadcast an eight-part series spreading allegations about the French president and first lady, including that Brigitte Macron was born a man, stole another person’s identity and transitioned to a woman.
The lawsuit said Owens has promoted “outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions” to boost her platform and make money.
According to Guardian newspaper, the suit claims the Macrons sought retractions from Owens for the “demonstrably false” claims she has made about them but that she instead “mocked them and used them as additional fodder for her frenzied fan base”.
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Owens has also peddled allegations that President Macron was chosen to be the President of France as part of the CIA-operated MKUltra program, and that the couple is committing forgery, fraud, and abuses of power to conceal these secrets.
“Because Ms Owens systematically reaffirmed these falsehoods in response to each of our attorneys’ repeated requests for a retraction, we ultimately concluded that referring the matter to a court of law was the only remaining avenue,” the Macrons said in a statement.
“Ms Owens’ campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety. We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused. It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all.”
Attacks on Brigitte Macron’s appearance and falsehoods about her gender have circulated for years, though Owens amplified them considerably in the US.
According to a 2021 Wilson Center report, other prominent women in politics, including Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris have faced these kinds of “secretly transgender” social media campaigns.
“These narratives tap into the trope of the duplicitous woman, implying that not only are transgender individuals inherently deceptive, but that this deception is responsible for the power and influence that these women hold,” the report said.
The Macrons have previously filed legal claims against two women in France over their theory that Brigitte Macron is a biological male. They were initially found guilty of libel, though that was then overturned, which Brigitte Macron has now appealed.
