Overview
- On July 23, 2025, President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron filed a 219-page defamation lawsuit against Candace Owens in Delaware Superior Court.
- The complaint alleges that Owens knowingly propagated false claims in a multi-part YouTube series that Brigitte Macron was born a man, and it seeks unspecified punitive damages along with a jury trial.
- President Macron’s participation is unprecedented as a French appeals court recently overturned the couple’s 2024 defamation victory, which they have appealed to France’s Cour de Cassation.
- The lawsuit highlights the challenge of applying America’s actual malice standard to cross-border defamation claims lodged by public figures.
- The gender-swap conspiracy originated in a December 2021 YouTube broadcast and has been boosted by far-right and anti-vaccine accounts, reflecting broader distrust in institutions.