<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/23/emmanuel-brigitte-macron-candace-owens-lawsuit-defamation>
"The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte Macron, are
suing the rightwing commentator Candace Owens for defamation.
In a suit filed on Wednesday in Delaware against Owens and her businesses, the
Macrons say Owens has engaged in ongoing defamatory attacks against them in
order to elevate her media platform, gain more audience and make money.
Owens said in early 2024 that she would “stake [her] entire professional
reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man”. Since then, she
has doubled down on these claims and added more, including in an eight-part
podcast series called
Becoming Brigitte, the lawsuit alleges.
The Macrons sought retractions from Owens, the suit says, for the “demonstrably
false” claims she has made about them but she instead “mocked them and used
them as additional fodder for her frenzied fan base”.
“These outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions included that Mrs
Macron was born a man, stole another person’s identity, and transitioned to
become Brigitte; Mrs Macron and President Macron are blood relatives committing
incest; President Macron was chosen to be the President of France as part of
the CIA-operated MKUltra program or a similar mind-control program; and Mrs
Macron and President Macron are committing forgery, fraud, and abuses of power
to conceal these secrets.
“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,” the Macrons said in a statement. “Ms Owens’ campaign of defamation was
plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner
attention and notoriety. We gave her every opportunity to back away from these
claims, but she refused. It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the
record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all.”
The falsehoods have taken a toll on the Macrons, who are now subjected to “a
campaign of global humiliation, turning their lives into fodder for
profit-driven lies” and “relentless bullying on a worldwide scale”. Beyond the
reputational damage, they have spent “considerable sums of money to correct the
public record”, including on legal counsel.
“Every time the Macrons leave their home, they do so knowing that countless
people have heard, and many believe, these vile fabrications. It is invasive,
dehumanizing, and deeply unjust,” the suit says.
According to the
Financial Times, the Macrons are willing to appear in court
in Delaware for a trial. They are represented by Clare Locke, a heavyweight law
firm that has won major defamation cases, including the Dominion lawsuit
against
Fox News.
The lawsuit came after the Macrons have sent three separate retraction demands
to Owens that included evidence disproving her claims, which she has used to
“further taunt the Macrons” and “invent even more damaging lies”, a press
release from Locke says."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
