• French President Emmanuel Macron and first lady Brigitte Macron are suing Candace Owens in Delaware for defamation.
• Owens has spent months promoting a conspiracy theory that Brigitte was born male, monetizing the claims through her media platforms.
• Now Owens is pressuring President Trump and JD Vance to publicly defend her—so far, without success.

WILMINGTON, DE (TDR) — Far-right commentator Candace Owens is no stranger to controversy, but her latest battle may be her most consequential yet. The outspoken media figure is facing a high-profile defamation lawsuit from French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, over months of online content accusing Brigitte of being a transgender woman — a claim both Macrons flatly deny.

Filed in Delaware court, the lawsuit alleges Owens has “used this false statement to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money.” The Macrons cite Owens’s Candace podcast and her eight-part YouTube series, Becoming Brigitte, as key vehicles for the alleged defamation.

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Owens, however, has doubled down. In March 2024, she wrote on X, “After looking into this, I would stake my entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man.”

A Call from Trump — and a Warning to Back Off

As legal proceedings inch closer, Owens claims she’s receiving little support from allies she once considered political heavyweights. In a recent monologue, she said President Trump personally phoned her to urge her to drop the claims about Brigitte’s gender.

“You have a literal European leader that is basically saying ‘eff you’ to the American Constitution,” Owens told her audience. “Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte are saying, ‘We don’t like that podcaster in America, and we’re going to launch a lawsuit that’s never been launched before … to impoverish her for speaking.’ And both JD Vance and Trump have not issued a statement.”

Owens argued that if Trump truly valued the First Amendment, he would publicly condemn the lawsuit — even if he privately disagreed with her claims. “He could say, like he said to me on the phone, that ‘I looked at her real close in the Eiffel Tower, and it looked like a woman to me.’ You can say that — but you should also say it’s unacceptable that a foreign leader would threaten free speech.”

From Aggressor to Aggrieved

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The irony, critics note, is that Owens spent months waging what she called a “transvestigation” campaign against Brigitte, generating significant audience engagement — and revenue — from the conspiracy. Now, she portrays herself as the victim of an international legal challenge.

“This leader would threaten the First Amendment in any way … the job of the federal government is to defend us against foreign invaders, and I would pretty much say Emmanuel Macron right now is being a foreign invader,” Owens claimed.

Observers say the legal stakes are serious. U.S. courts have historically protected political speech under the First Amendment, but they have also recognized defamation claims when false statements cause demonstrable harm. By filing in Delaware, the Macrons may be seeking a jurisdiction with clear precedent for holding online commentators accountable.

Critics — and Piers Morgan — Push Back

Even some of Owens’s peers in the media are unsympathetic. Appearing on his talk show, Piers Morgan told Owens bluntly: “You kind of know the rumor about Brigitte is not true, but you’ve ridden the wave of conspiracy theory because it’s been so lucrative. That is why they’re suing you — because ultimately they know you’ve been amplifying this massively more than the journalists had in France.”

Legal experts note that high-profile defamation cases often hinge on proving “actual malice” — that the defendant either knew the statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Owens’s public insistence that she would “stake [her] entire professional reputation” on the claim could cut both ways: as evidence of belief, or as proof of recklessness given the lack of supporting facts.

What Comes Next

The lawsuit is expected to move forward later this year, with depositions and discovery likely to shine more light on Owens’s editorial process — and perhaps on whether her campaign against Brigitte was strategically monetized.

For now, Owens continues to call for public support from political allies, but neither JD Vance nor President Trump has publicly responded to her appeals.

Will Owens’s free speech defense hold in court, or will the Macrons succeed in making her pay for a conspiracy she monetized?

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