“Global scandal erupts: President Macron and wife Brigitte launch explosive lawsuit against US podcaster Candace Owens—accusing her of defamation over wild transgender conspiracy claims! International outrage, courtroom drama, and political chaos ignite as the French First Couple fights to defend their reputation. Is this the year’s most shocking legal battle?”

President Macron and Brigitte filed a lawsuit against American podcaster Candace Owens, accusing her of defamation by spreading conspiracy theories that the French first lady is transgender.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court on July 23, focuses on an eight-part podcast called “Becoming Brigitte” by Candace Owens, an American political commentator and influential right-wing podcaster in the country.

According to President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, this program has spread “false information, causing serious damage”. In it, Owens said that Brigitte, 72, took someone else’s identity and then transitioned to female, or that Macron and his wife were blood relatives.

“Mrs. Owens dissected the appearance, marriage, friends, family and personal past of the Macrons, distorting them all in order to incite, humiliate, and cause a persistent bullying campaign on a global scale,” the lawsuit said.

In a podcast that aired the same day, Owens denied the allegations, saying the lawsuit was “rife with misinformation” and was part of a media campaign to smear her reputation.

Owens, 36, added she was unaware of the lawsuit in advance, although lawyers on both sides had been in contact since January. Owens has over 6.9 million followers on X and over 4.5 million subscribers on YouTube.

Owens’ spokesperson called the lawsuit an “attempted bullying”, after first lady Brigitte repeatedly declined Owens’ interview invitations. “A foreign government is infringing on the constitutional freedom of expression of an independent American journalist,” the spokesman said.

In a joint statement, the Macrons’ legal team said they filed the lawsuit after Owens refused to retract the defamatory statements.

“Owens’ defamation campaign was clearly designed to harass and harm our family, and at the same time to cause scandal and attention. We gave Owens every opportunity to retract those statements, but she refused,” Macrons said.

At the age of 15, Emmanuel Macron fell in love with the 40-year-old drama teacher who married Brigitte Auziere at the Providence Catholic School in Amiens in the early 1990s. Her daughter Laurence was a classmate of the future French president.

Brigitte divorced her ex-husband in 2006. She married Macron in 2007 at the age of 54 and Macron was 29. After Mr. Macron was elected, their love affair of more than 20 years attracted the attention of the public.

Duc Trung (According to Reuters, AFP)