French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, have filed a defamation lawsuit in the U.S. against conservative commentator Candace Owens over her repeated claims that Brigitte is "in fact a man." The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court, includes 22 counts against Owens, including defamation, false light, and defamation by implication.
The Macrons allege that Owens has waged a "campaign of global humiliation" to promote her podcast and expand her "frenzied" fan base. The lawsuit also claims that Owens spread "verifiably false and devastating lies," including that Brigitte Macron stole another person's identity and transitioned to female, and that the Macrons are blood relatives committing incest.
Owens' investigative series Becoming Brigitte explored the bizarre circumstances and questions surrounding Brigitte's gender and marriage to Macron.
Macron was 15-years-old and Brigitte who was his teacher, was 40-years-old, when they allegedly started having an affair.
Responding to the lawsuit on her podcast Wednesday, Candace refused to retract her claims and called the lawsuit a "foreign government attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist." She stated that she would continue to express her views on her show.
“You are a very goofy man, Brigitte. But I’ve got to give it to you, you’ve definitely got balls,” Owens said. “Fire everyone around you who said this was a very good idea for you to be the first sitting first lady of a country to file a lawsuit against a journalist in another country.”
Owens went on to argue that the lawsuit against her is an “obvious and desperate public relations strategy,” and that it is “beyond obvious” that the French First Lady “has a penis.”
She also emphasized that her requests to interview Brigitte Macron for her investigative series were denied, saying her team was “unwilling to answer yes or no questions that we emailed to them.”
Owens claimed the Macrons are actually defaming her in their lawsuit and declaring she will see them in court.
In a recent development, a French court overturned the ruling against two women who were sued by Brigitte Macron for defamation after they claimed she was "born a man." This decision came after the women, Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey, had been previously convicted and ordered to pay damages.
The Paris Appeal Court ruled that their statements constituted "good faith" free speech, thereby acquitting them of the charges. The court's ruling means they no longer have to pay anything and can continue to make their allegations. Brigitte has appealed the decision.
