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...
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 Tennesse...