Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron defamation lawsuit against Candace Owens, Digi Mart USA News (United States): French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron have filed new defamation proceedings in the United States against influencer Candace Owens. The couple accuses her of spreading and profiting from the false claim that Brigitte Macron is transgender.
The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Tennessee last week, following a judge’s late-October decision to narrow the couple’s earlier complaint, filed in summer 2025 in Delaware. The judge ruled that Owens could not be held personally liable because the claims were time-barred, but allowed the case to proceed against her companies.
The new complaint, filed November 4, targets her directly in her state of residence.
In the filing, the couple argues that Owens “used this false information to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety and make money.” They accuse her of having “persisted” since the original 2025 complaint and of having “amplified her lies” about them. The complaint states, “This is not a search for truth, but a search for notoriety,” and lists about 88 cases across more than 400 pages.
The document says the falsehoods have caused “immense damage” to the Macrons and refers to an “international campaign of humiliation.” The false claim about Brigitte Macron has resurfaced regularly in France on social media since her husband’s first election in 2017. It gained international reach in the United States after a podcaster promoted it in March 2024, and a series of videos titled “Becoming Brigitte” has extended its global visibility since January 2025.
According to the false claim, which has been widely shared in France by conspiracy-minded, COVID-skeptic and far-right groups, Brigitte Macron, born Trogneux, never existed, and her brother Jean-Michel supposedly took on her identity after transitioning. The couple asks the American court “to restore the truth, prevent further harm and hold Ms.
Owens accountable for her conduct,” according to the complaint.
