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By Marni Rose McFall
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Candace Owens has responded to French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, filing a defamation lawsuit against the conservative influencer, saying, "see you in court."
Newsweek has reached to Owens for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
Why It Matters
The lawsuit was announced in the press on Wednesday, July 23, and comes after Owens has repeatedly claimed that the French first lady is "in fact a man."
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The suit calls Owens' various claims "outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions" and states that they have caused "relentless bullying on a worldwide scale," resulting in "tremendous damage to the Macrons." It includes 22 counts against the conservative commentator. These include defamation and false light.
What To Know
Owens responded on her eponymous podcast in an episode released on Wednesday, saying: "I am fully prepared to take on this battle on behalf of the entire world."
Owens described the lawsuit as an "obvious and desperate public relations strategy." She also called on Brigitte Macron to provide blood samples and childhood pictures.
"I'd like to make it to discovery, I think we owe that to the world," she said.
"See you in court," she added.
The 218-page lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court was announced by Attorney Tom Clare, who is representing the Macrons.
Owens' company is incorporated in Delaware. Clare told the Financial Times that the Macrons will be willing to travel to Delaware to appear in person at any trial.
Owens has previously drawn criticism for making inflammatory statements on a range of topics, including transgender issues. In 2024, she was denied a visa to Australia following remarks that minimized the Holocaust and controversial claims about Islam and slavery. She was later also denied entry into New Zealand.
Disinformation about Brigitte' Macron's gender has circulated on social media for a number of years. It began after two women, Amandine Roy, a self-described spiritual medium and Natacha Rey, a self-described independent journalist, shared unverified rumours about Brigitte Macron's gender in a four-hour-long YouTube video. The claims then went viral ahead of France's 2022 presidential election. Brigitte Marcon filed a complaint against the women and the pair were found guilty of slander.
Her lawyer in the case, Jean Ennochi, said at the time: "The prejudice is massive, it exploded everywhere."
The court had first ordered the women to pay damages, but the Paris Court of Appeals overturned the ruling this month. Brigitte Macron has appealed this decision to France's highest appeals court.
In response to a request for comment for this article, the legal team for the Macrons directed Newsweek to an interview Clare gave to CNN where he discussed the lawsuit and Owens' response.
He said: "I'd like to thank her for that reaction to the lawsuit, she is only helping us with our claim for punitive damages by expressing no remorse and doubling down on these falsehoods."
What People Are Saying
In a Wednesday statement, the Macrons said: "Because Ms. Owens systematically reaffirmed these falsehoods in response to each of our attorneys' repeated requests for a retraction, we ultimately concluded that referring the matter to a court of law was the only remaining avenue for remedy."
The Macrons' attorney, Tom Clare, said in a Wednesday statement: "If ever there was a clear-cut case of defamation, this is it. Relying on discredited falsehoods originally presented by a self-proclaimed spiritual medium and so-called investigative journalist, Ms. Owens both promoted and expanded on those falsehoods and invented new ones, all designed to cause maximum harm to the Macrons and maximize attention and financial gain for herself."
What's Next
The lawsuit has requested a jury trial.
Update: 07/24/25, 11:16 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information from the Macrons' legal team.
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