French President Emmanuel Macron and first lady Brigitte Macron have launched a federal defamation lawsuit against American conservative podcaster Candace Owens in Tennessee, pivoting their transatlantic legal strategy after a Delaware court dismissed personal claims against the commentator.
The lawsuit centres on a long-debunked conspiracy theory alleging that Brigitte Macron was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux, the actual name of her 81-year-old brother.
The false narrative initially surfaced on the fringes of the French internet before being amplified to a global English-speaking audience by Owens, who pushed the claims from March 2024 across social media and a dedicated podcast series, Becoming Brigitte.
The Nashville filing follows a recent jurisdictional setback for the French first family.
The Macrons initially filed a defamation suit on July 23, 2025 against Owens and her two media companies, Candace Owens LLC and GeorgeTom Inc, in Delaware.
On October 27, though, Delaware Superior Court judge Sheldon K. Rennie dismissed the claims against Owens individually, ruling that her management of Delaware-registered companies did not establish sufficient grounds to sue her personally in the state.
Rennie also ruled that French law governs the limitation period for the claims, leaving open whether the case against the two companies was brought in time.
While the litigation against her corporate entities was allowed to proceed, the Macrons refiled a federal suit against Owens on November 4 in Tennessee, where she currently resides, to ensure she could be held personally liable for damages.
Lodged with the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the 409-page complaint lists 88 counts of defamation, false light and defamation by implication.
The couple is seeking actual, presumed and punitive damages, a narrowly tailored injunction barring Owens from republishing statements a court finds defamatory and a jury trial.
In the Tennessee court filings, the Macrons accuse the podcaster of knowingly propagating “verifiably false and devastating lies” for personal financial gain.
The legal team argues that Owens repeatedly ignored public records and credible evidence, choosing instead to monetise the “grotesque narrative” through merchandise sales, donations and platform subscriptions, thereby subjecting the French first family to a campaign of global humiliation.
According to the complaint, Owens has grown her following to 7.7 million on X and 6.1 million subscribers on YouTube, while other podcasters, including Joe Rogan, carried her allegations to tens of millions of listeners.
Owens confirmed the new action on X on November 9, writing that the “Macrons have indeed filed a NEW set of claims against me”. After the Delaware ruling, she had described the case as “one of the grossest, legal overreaches by a foreign government leader in human history”.
The US litigation is part of a broader legal offensive by the Macrons against those propagating the conspiracy.
The French first couple’s legal complaint explicitly notes that while there is “nothing shameful or defamatory about being a man, being transgender, or being gay”, Owens’ statements constitute actionable defamation because they publicly accuse the Macrons of perpetrating a decades-long fraud against France and the world and committing crimes to conceal the alleged deception.
The American lawsuit follows a high-profile cyberbullying trial in Paris in October 2025, where 10 individuals faced charges for originating and spreading the exact same claims.
During the French court proceedings, the accused attempted to shield themselves by characterising the coordinated harassment as harmless humour.
Several defendants insisted they posted the claims strictly in a “satirical spirit”, with one individual rhetorically asking the courtroom, “Since when has it been a crime to make a joke?”
Despite their attempts to deploy a satire defence, the Paris court rejected the argument, convicting the 10 defendants on January 5, 2026.
