France's President Macron & wife sue US influencer Candace Owens for claiming 1st Lady was born a man

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, have filed a defamation lawsuit against U.S. right-wing influencer Candace Owens.

Owens had previously claimed on her various social media platforms that Brigitte was born male.

According to BBC, the lawsuit was filed on Jul. 23 and said that Owens had been spreading "outlandish, defamatory and far-fetched fictions".

Owens, 36, is an American right-wing podcaster and influencer. She previously worked for conservative-leaning media outlets like the Daily Wire.

She launched her independent podcast in 2024 and has since spread various claims and conspiracy theories on topics such as Covid-19 vaccines, the Holocaust and the moon landings.

She currently has more than 6.9 million followers on X and more than 4.4 million YouTube subscribers.

Mrs Macron "is in fact a man"

BBC reported one of the conspiracy theories that Owens had circulated for years alleged that Brigitte was born male with the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is her brother's name.

Owens had spread such claims to her audiences via her podcast and social media platforms.

On Feb. 1, Owens also released a eight-part podcast and video series titled "Becoming Brigitte" on her podcast and YouTube channel respectively.

In a joint statement released by the Macrons' lawyers, it said that Owens' claims were "designed to harass and cause pain to [the Macrons] and [their] families", and was also an attempt to garner fame and attention.

According to the Macrons, they had repeatedly asked Owens to retract her defamatory statements, but "ultimately concluded that referring the matter to a court of law was the only remaining avenue for remedy".

Reuters added that such claims about Brigitte's gender started in 2021 and the topic has been discussed on popular American podcasts hosted by Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, who have a mostly conservative fanbase.

"Becoming Brigitte"

Reuters reported that the lawsuit focuses on the series "Becoming Brigitte", which has garnered more than 2.3 million views on YouTube.

Besides claiming that Brigitte stole another person's identity and transitioned to female, the series also alleged that the Macrons are blood-related, all of which are "verifiably false and devastating lies".

The complaint filed stated that Macrons' relationship "remained within the bounds of the law".

Macron was a 15-year-old student at Lycée La Providence, a private school in Amiens, France, when he first met Brigitte, Yahoo reported.

Brigitte, then 39-years-old, was his drama teacher.

Owens: "This is just goofy"

According to BBC, Owens released a new episode of her podcast on Jul. 23, titled "BREAKING! Brigitte Sues Me For Defamation".

In the podcast, Owens said that the lawsuit "is just goofy".

She added that it was "littered with factual inaccuracies" and all part of an "obvious and desperate public relations strategy" to damage her reputation, Reuters reported.

According to Owens, she supposedly had no clue that the Macrons would be filing a lawsuit against her, even though lawyers from both sides had been communicating since January this year.

Owens' spokesperson claimed that the lawsuit was an attempt to bully Owens after Brigitte had rejected Owens' requests for an interview multiple times.

He further added that the government was "attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist".

In order to win the case, the Macrons will have to prove that Owens was engaged in "actual malice", which requires proof that Owens knew the information was false, yet she chose to publish or broadcast them.

Top photos via Labour Heartlands, Candace Owens/Facebook