French President Emmanuel Macron and Wife Brigitte File Defamation Lawsuit Against Candace Owens
Filed in Delaware on Wednesday, the lawsuit accuses Owens of publishing 'outlandish, defamatory and far-fetched fictions,' causing 'substantial reputational damage' and 'substantial economic damages' to the Macrons in the process, according to the Financial Times.
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The 218 page-court ruling states that along with claiming Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, Owens went on to say that the Macrons are also blood relatives and that Emmanuel Macron is 'a product of a CIA human experiment or a similar government mind control programme,' per the Financial Times.
The lawsuit says Owens is responsible for spreading the conspiracy theory in the U.S. and around the world in order 'to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety and make money.' On top of selling some merchandise, she's garnered a social media presence nearing 4.5 million YouTube subscribers with her eight-part series 'Becoming Brigitte' released this year.
The filing also says Owens 'ignored multiple attempts by the Macrons to engage,' including a letter that the French President and his wife sent the conservative influencer in December to 'pointedly deny that the president was statutorily raped,' according to the Financial Times.
The court document charts the timeline of their relationship which started when Emmanuel Macron was a 15-year-old student at a Catholic high school in Amiens and met Brigitte, who was then a 39-year-old married teacher with three children. Their relationship 'remained within the bounds of the law' for a number of years and the pair eventually got married in 2007 when Emmanuel was 29.
The Macrons recently delivered one of the year's biggest viral moments in May after the first lady was seen slapping the French President as the doors of their plane opened as they landed in Vietnam for an official visit. Macron denied having a domestic dispute and said they 'were squabbling,' and 'joking' with each other.
Brigitte Macron will be portrayed in a biopic series whose development was announced last year by Gaumont, the company behind the Netflix hit show 'Lupin.'
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