French president Emmanuel Macron has spoken out on his family’s defamation case against far-right media personality Candace Owens, who has continuously pushed a conspiracy theory that his wife, Brigitte Macron, is a transgender woman.
Owens, a recent Black Catholic convert who commands some 30 million followers on social media, has additionally claimed that the Macrons are close relatives, that President Macron is a CIA plant, and that the couple has conspired to pull off an illegal cover-up.
The civil suit in response, filed by the Macrons on July 23 in Delaware, describes Owens’ comments as a “relentless and unjustified smear campaign,” a sentiment reiterated by the president in an interview with Paris Match in August.
“This risked provoking a ‘Streisand effect,’ which draws even more attention to these lies,” he said in the wide-ranging interview amid his second term in office, “but it became so widespread in the United States that we had to react.”
EXCLUSIF - Le président de la République et son épouse ont décidé en juillet de déposer plainte contre Candace Owens, l’influenceuse qui propage la rumeur selon laquelle Brigitte Macron serait un homme. https://t.co/8KthnDmCFr
— Paris Match (@ParisMatch) August 19, 2025
The president’s comments come as his wife remains embroiled in similar litigation in France, where the conspiracy theories first emerged. They were widely popularized in 2023 with a French-language book by Xavier Poussard, “Becoming Brigitte,” which generated controversy in France. Owens later took the name of the book as the title of a podcast series she began in January 2025, shortly before the release of Poussard’s book in the United States.
Owens has included in the series a response to the lawsuit from the Macrons, calling it an opportunity to reveal what she says is the truth.
“We want to sit you down in court,” she told her followers in a video on Aug. 19, shortly after President Macron’s interview with Paris Match.
“We want to be able to ask these questions that you still will not answer, that Brigitte still will not answer. That's all anybody has been asking for.”
In a French court of appeals this summer, journalist Natacha Rey and spiritual medium Amandine Roy were acquitted of libel regarding a now-deleted 2021 YouTube video in which they also claimed Brigitte Macron was born male as Jean-Michel Trogneux.
The claim has been debunked by various sources—including Trogneux, Brigitte’s brother, who is still alive and residing in France. He is involved in the French lawsuit and is reportedly joining his sister's appeal to the country's supreme court, according to Brigitte’s lawyer Jean Ennochi. Also of note is that Brigitte, during her first marriage, gave birth to several children, which transgender women cannot do.
The French appeals court did not rule on the truth or falsity of Rey and Roy’s claims, instead merely stating that the two acted in “good faith” in their online statements, which are protected in France by laws on freedom of expression. Owens has described her claims as an outworking of investigative journalism.
“We're just investigating here,” she said in her August YouTube video. “We are literally just asking questions, and it's always faster to just go to the public because the internet sleuths are the best. This is like our own CIA.”
Trogneux is not party to the lawsuit against Owens, who has cited Rey and Roy in her claims regarding Brigitte’s gender. Owens’ “Becoming Brigitte” video series garnered more than 30 million views on YouTube alone, with additional listenership on audio platforms. She has also covered the topic repeatedly in other videos and uses male pronouns for Brigitte on social media.
President Macron, in his recent interview, said Owens’ actions amount to an intentional tort and must be addressed in the courts.
“This is about defending my honor! Because this is nonsense,” he said.
“This is someone who knew full well that she had false information and did so with the aim of causing harm, in the service of an ideology and with established connections to far-right leaders.”
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
