Macrons File Second Defamation Suit Against Candace Owens
In their Tennessee filing, the French president and first lady accuse the podcaster of spreading false claims about Brigitte Macron and their marriage.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, have filed a second defamation lawsuit against right-wing podcaster Candace Owens, this time in federal court in her home state of Tennessee.
The couple first sued Owens and her two media companies in July 2025 in Delaware, where the companies are registered. On October 27, a Delaware judge dismissed Owens from the case, ruling that she lives in Tennessee and lacks sufficient ties to Delaware for the court to exercise personal jurisdiction over her.
The judge allowed the Macrons’ claims against both media companies to proceed.
The Macrons filed their new lawsuit in Nashville on November 4, seeking to hold Owens personally liable for spreading what they say are false and defamatory claims about them, reports Politico.
Chief among the false claims attributed to Owens in the lawsuit is that Brigitte Macron, 73, is a transgender woman who was born Jean-Michel Trogneux and underwent a sex-change operation as part of a conspiracy to seduce the future president, who is 24 years younger than her. Trogneux is in fact Brigitte Macron’s 80-year-old brother, reports the British newspaper The Times.
“Owens made the false and defamatory allegations that Mrs Macron, born a man, stole another person’s identity to become Brigitte; [and that] Mrs Macron and President Macron are blood relatives involved in incest,” the Nashville complaint states.
The complaint also says Owens claimed that Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France as part of a “mind-control program” and that the Macrons are “committing forgery, fraud, and abuses of power to cover up” Brigitte Macron’s true identity.
“[Owens] has continued to use her podcast to expand her lies about the Macrons, sell merchandise making fun of the Macrons, and collect donations based on her ‘reporting,'” alleges the 409-page Nashville complaint.
According to The Times, the lawsuit singles out a “Brigitte doll” that Owens holds in her videos, calling it “a grotesque, alien-like figure, reminiscent of [the film character] ET, that caricatures Mrs. Macron’s body.” The lawsuit argues that Owens’ use of the doll to mock Brigitte Macron shows that Owens’ insistence on repeating her claims is “driven by animus toward Mrs. Macron’s perceived gender identity, gender, and sexuality.”
The complaint documents other examples of what the Macrons call “outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions” that Owens spread on her podcast.
The Macrons note in their suit that there is no shame in being a man, being transgender, or being gay. They argue that Owens’ statements are defamatory because they accuse the French first couple of “lying to France and to the world.”
“Mrs. Owens was adamant that Tennessee is where this case belongs because it’s where she lives,” a representative for the Macrons’ legal team said in a statement to Politico. “With this filing, we are giving her exactly what she has repeatedly demanded.”
Owens, 37, claimed she had been vindicated after the Delaware judge dismissed her from the case and limited the scope of the lawsuit against her companies. She has accused the French first couple of overreaching to punish her for protected speech.
Responding to reports of the Nashville lawsuit, Owens wrote on X, “I’m afraid to say this is accurate. The Macrons have indeed filed a new set of claims against me. Eighty-eight in total, and this time, they want justice over my Brigitte-Doll.”
It remains unclear how successful this second lawsuit will be. In the United States, public figures suing for defamation must prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice,” meaning the defendant knew the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for whether they were true.
The Macrons have said they decided to sue Owens because the falsehoods damaged their reputations and caused pain and suffering for Brigitte and her family. The false claims that Brigitte is transgender had circulated among right-wing agitators and conspiracy theorists in France.
In Nashville, the Macrons are seeking punitive damages and a court order barring Owens from republishing any statements the court finds defamatory.
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