Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron launch defamation case against Candace Owens
Owens attacked Ms Macron, 72, in a now-deleted YouTube video posted in March last year, propagating the false claim that she is a biological man. The American commentator said she based her allegations on a 'thorough investigation' by French blogger Natacha Rey, who is also being sued by the Macrons in a separate claim in France . Mr and Ms Macron said in a statement: '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 for remedy.
'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.' The 22-count complaint seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
Tom Clare of Clare Locke LLP, lead counsel for the Macrons, announced the filing of the 22-count defamation lawsuits against Owens, citing 'a relentless year-long campaign of defamation'. 'Ms Owens has promoted a preposterous narrative about the Macrons, including incendiary and verifiably false accusations of identity theft, incest, violent crimes, and mind control,' a statement shared with MailOnline read. It comes days after sources close to the Macrons revealed Brigitte has been driven to despair by online abuse stemming from claims she was born a man and had 'sexually abused' her future husband when he was a boy.
Owens took to social media in March 2024 to announce she was 'waging her entire professional reputation' on the theory that the French first lady was born Jean-Michel Trogneux - the actual name of her older brother - before transitioning aged 30. The conspiracy theory alleges that Brigitte did not give birth to any of her three children, and that her first husband, a 69-year-old retired banker said to have died a recluse in 2020, never existed. The wild claims stem from an article published in September 2021 by French far-right magazine Faits et Documents (Facts & Documents), which initially went unnoticed.
But the allegations were seized upon after far-right blogger and Faits et Documents contributor Natacha Rey, and clairvoyant Amandine Roy, covered them in a YouTube interview that went viral. The Macrons initiated legal proceedings against Rey, 49, and Roy, 53, and the pair were initially found guilty of libel and fined. But the Paris Court of Appeal earlier this month overturned the convictions, finding that the claims made by Rey and Roy were 'made in good faith' and repeated information that was already in the public domain.
The shock ruling prompted a fresh wave of abuse directed at the French First Lady on social media, who was said to have been left 'absolutely devastated'. The Macrons have taken that case to the Court of Cassation - the only legal forum that can overturn Appeal Court rulings - in addition to filing a lawsuit against Owens in the US. The relationship between French President Macron, 47, and his 72-year-old wife has long been a subject of fascination at home and abroad since they met in 1992.
She was 39, a married mother-of-three, and a teacher at the French Catholic school in Amiens. He was 14 and a pupil in the same class as one of her daughters when they first crossed paths. Brigitte later divorced her husband and began a relationship with Macron while he was in his late teens .
Wednesday's lawsuit is a rare case of a world leader suing for defamation, though US President Donald Trump has filed multiple defamation lawsuits, including against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal last week. To prevail in defamation cases filed in the US, public figures like the Macrons and Trump must show defendants engaged in 'actual malice,' meaning they knew what they published was false or had reckless disregard for its truth.
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