Left: Candace Owens in 2022. Proper: Brigitte Macron in 2017. Credit score – Jason Davis—Getty Photos; Guillaume Collet—SIPA/AP
“The lifetime of Candace Owens, it really works like this,” stated the favored right-wing commentator on her podcast on Wednesday. “I get up, I stretch, I’ve a cup of espresso, after which I’m served with a lawsuit.”
Owens defined that she had simply been sued by the “first woman man” of France, repeating her contentious declare that Brigitte Macron, the spouse of French President Emmanuel Macron, was born male.
It’s a declare that Owens beforehand stated “I might stake my total skilled status on”—and which she might now should, because the Macrons search to take Owens to trial, submitting a 219-page grievance earlier than a Delaware courtroom on Wednesday that alleges she has subjected them to a “marketing campaign of world humiliation.”
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron arrive for a state go to in England on July 9, 2025. Emmanuel Macron was elected President of France in 2017.Alberto Pezzali—Pool/Getty Photos
The Macrons are represented by Clare Locke, a regulation agency that focuses on high-profile status instances and is probably greatest identified for serving as co-counsel for Dominion Voting Programs in its historic $787 million settlement towards Fox Information over the cable community’s 2020 election lies.
The grievance towards Owens requests not-yet-specified “precise, presumed, and punitive” financial damages and “such different and extra cures because the Courtroom might deem simply and correct.”
“This was actually a final resort,” lead counsel Tom Clare instructed CNN in regards to the lawsuit. “We now have tried to interact with [Owens] for the final yr—placing proof in entrance of her, request after request after request that she simply merely do the proper factor.” Clare stated these makes an attempt have been ignored. “Sufficient is sufficient.”
Owens’ response, nevertheless, suggests the saga is not going to finish anytime quickly.
“I’m totally ready to tackle this battle,” Owens stated. “On behalf of the complete world, I’ll see you in courtroom.”
What the Macrons’ lawsuit says
Within the grievance, which included 99 pages of allegations of reality and outlined 22 alleged counts of defamation and false gentle, the Macrons declare that Owens has endorsed, manufactured, and promoted a collection of false statements about them, together with that Brigitte Macron was born a person and transitioned to establish as a lady, that Brigitte Macron statutorily raped a younger Emmanuel Macron, that the 2 are associated and engaged in incest, and that the Macrons have abused their energy to hide their scandalous pasts. The lawsuit states that every one such claims are demonstrably false and defamatory and alleges that Owens knowingly laundered the falsities in “pursuit of fame.”
The lawsuit cites plenty of items of proof—together with photographs of a younger Brigitte, a contemporaneous newspaper announcement of her delivery, and the actual fact she gave delivery to 3 youngsters along with her first husband—to refute Owens’ claims.
It additionally takes purpose at Owens’ credibility, pointing to her profession of “routinely peddling misinformation beneath the guise of authentic reporting” and saying that she “constructed a model on provocation, not fact.” Owens, who beforehand labored as communications director for the conservative activist group Turning Level USA and was fired for antisemitism from the conservative media web site The Each day Wire final yr, has hundreds of thousands of followers on X and YouTube.
The grievance argues that Owens monetized her allegedly defamatory claims in regards to the Macrons, together with by promoting merchandise equivalent to a shirt displaying Brigitte Macron on a pretend TIME journal “Man of the Yr” cowl.
The lawsuit highlights that Owens was despatched an in depth retraction demand letter in December that “conclusively disproved” her claims in regards to the Macrons however Owens nonetheless went on to supply an eight-part video collection titled “Turning into Brigitte” by which she continued to hawk false claims. Owens, in line with the grievance, misrepresented the letter to her followers and urged that the Macrons have been trying to “intimidate” her, which she cited as inspiration for producing the collection, which was “aggressively monetized” and used to “elevate her private model.”
“Her conduct reveals a transparent motive to generate controversy for monetary and reputational achieve,” the grievance alleges. “She is going to say something, no matter how outrageous or unfounded, to draw consideration, construct her platform, and obtain notoriety.”
Candace Owens is seen on the set of her present in Nashville, Tenn., in April 2022. Jason Davis—Getty Photos
The lawsuit claims “overwhelming proof” of precise malice, a typical required to be proved clearly and convincingly by plaintiffs to ensure that a defamation case to beat First Modification protections. Along with her response to the retraction demand letter, monetary motivations, and political bias, it cites Owens’ reliance on non-credible sources to advertise an “inherently unbelievable” conspiracy idea.
The grievance references a ruling by a courtroom in France final September that discovered two of Owens’ sources—“so-called clairvoyant” Amandine Roy and “novice detective” Natacha Rey—accountable for libel for spreading false claims about Brigitte Macron and her brother. An appeals courtroom overturned the convictions earlier this month, although the grievance towards Owens notes that the ruling “didn’t overturn the judgment on the idea that the statements have been true” however relatively as a result of it believed the defendants made the claims in “good religion.” That case has been appealed by Macron to France’s highest courtroom.
In summarizing the reputational and emotional hurt the French chief and his spouse have suffered, the grievance says that Owens’ allegedly defamatory statements “brought on quite a few people who heard or learn them—each those that had held the Macrons in excessive regard and those that in any other case would have, in addition to these with no consciousness or opinion of the Macrons—to view them with contempt, to carry them in low regard, and to keep away from associating or doing enterprise with them, and to encourage others to keep away from associating or doing enterprise with them as effectively.” In consequence, it added, “relationships with different members of the federal government, potential political allies, and others” in addition to “confidence within the Macrons’ integrity and health as political and governmental leaders” have been undermined.
And the devastating attain has been international, the grievance asserts, invoking Owens’ personal assertion in a March podcast episode: “This isn’t simply viral in France, viral in America, viral within the UK, the story, it’s even viral in Russia. Folks at the moment are contemplating it as part of their political dialogue and analyses.”
The Macrons described the unfold of Owens false statements by different media personalities and influencers, together with Joe Rogan, who’s broadly described as the most well-liked podcaster on the earth. On March and April episodes of his present, which has 20 million subscribers on YouTube, Rogan stated he believed Owens’ claims. “Yeah, Brigitte Macron’s a person. She acquired me hook, line, and sinker,” Rogan stated of Owens, noting that if her claims have been false “she could be getting sued proper now…they might sue her.”
Owens herself had additionally virtually dared the Macrons to sue her, in line with the grievance, telling them after the December retraction to “carry” it. “I’ll run right down to the courthouse and file the lawsuit for you,” Owens stated. “I’d even cowl your authorized bills.”
How Owens has responded to the Macrons’ lawsuit
Because the grievance was filed, Owens has solely doubled down, even utilizing it to advertise her “Turning into Brigitte” collection.
In a 52-minute podcast episode with a sharecard that marketed “This took…balls,” Owens insisted: “For those who want any extra proof that Brigitte Macron is certainly a person, it’s simply what is going on proper now. The concept you’ll file this lawsuit is all the proof that you simply want.”
She continued to label Brigitte Macron a “groomer” and “pedophile,” referencing how the couple met when Emmanuel Macron was a pupil and Brigitte was then his trainer. Brigitte was 39 years previous on the time, whereas Owens claims Emmanuel was 14, although the Macrons have lengthy stated he was 15, which is the age of consent in France. “Always, the teacher-student relationship between Mrs. Macron and President Macron remained inside the bounds of the regulation,” the grievance said.
The Macrons attend the annual Bastille Day navy parade in Paris on July 14, 2015. They reportedly met in 1993 and married in 2007.Pascal Rossignol—Pool/Reuters/AFP/Getty Photos
Owens minimized the grievance’s accusation of “relentless bullying,” asking “How previous are you? Are you 5 years previous? Actually?” On the similar time, she claimed the defamation lawsuit was a type of bullying and defamation towards her.
“You’re making an attempt to delegitimize the reporting by smearing my character,” she stated, earlier than studying from the grievance. “Right here’s one: ‘She has promoted a spread of conspiracy theories, together with anti-vaccine falsehoods, longdebunked antisemitic tropes equivalent to blood libel, and Holocaust distortion’ … None of that’s true. None of that’s true,” Owens responded.
“Hearth all people round you, and I imply actually everybody round you, who instructed you that this was a good suggestion. That this was an excellent concept so that you can be the primary sitting first woman of a rustic to file a lawsuit towards a journalist of one other nation,” Owens stated, calling the lawsuit a “catastrophic PR technique.”
“You’re defaming me since you don’t need individuals to proceed to look at the collection. However I’m sorry, my pal, the practice has left the station,” Owens stated. “It’s not going to work, OK? You’ve got met your match.”
“We’re not going to close up. You’re not going to bully us. Frankly, I discover this all to be irresistible and scrumptious,” Owens stated. She then claimed that within the authorized proceedings that will observe she would even attempt to depose President Donald Trump, who Owens stated referred to as her earlier this yr to say he personally confronted the French President about questions surrounding his spouse’s gender. Owens additionally stated that her lawyer would “be capable of sit throughout and ask Brigitte Macron questions on her penis” and “Brigitte would then be compelled for the primary time to reply them beneath oath.”
Owens railed towards what she referred to as the “perverts that run the world” and a “sadistic syndicate,” and he or she urged that the one conceivable method she might lose in courtroom is due to corruption masterminded by liberal elites. “I feel Hunter Biden sort of notoriously implied that his household controls the courts in Delaware. That’s true. Possibly that’s what they’re banking on.”
Contact us at letters@time.com.
