French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte will present scientific and photographic evidence to a US court to prove the latter was born a woman, it has been reported.
A lawyer acting for the couple said they will present evidence in the defamation case they have launched against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly alleged that Brigitte Macron was born male. The pair’s lawyer, Tom Clare, told the BBC’s Fame Under Fire podcast that the couple would prove “generally and specifically” that Owens’s allegations that Ms Macron was born male were false.
He said: “It is incredibly upsetting to think that you have to go and subject yourself to put this type of proof forward. It is a process that she will have to subject herself to in a very public way. But she’s willing to do it. She is firmly resolved to do what it takes to set the record straight.”
Owens told Yahoo News in a statement: “This is verifiably false. She isn’t suing me for saying she’s a man. She has never sued anyone ever for saying she’s a dude. Because she is one.” A copy of the complaint can be found on the Macron lawyer’s website here.
Why does Brigitte Macron need to ‘prove’ she’s a woman?
The Macrons are in the middle of a legal battle against American right-wing podcaster and influencer Candace Owens.
The couple filed a defamation lawsuit in the US in July, centred on Owens’s claim that Ms Macron is male. The complaint, filed in Delaware Superior Court, focuses on an eight-part YouTube podcast ‘Becoming Brigitte’.
The couple claim the series spread “verifiably false and devastating lies,” including that Ms Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux and transitioned to female, and that the Macrons are blood relatives committing incest. The complaint alleges that Owens had waged a “campaign of global humiliation” to promote her podcast and expand her “frenzied” fan base.
It says: “Owens has dissected their appearance, their marriage, their friends, their family, and their personal history — twisting it all into a grotesque narrative designed to inflame and degrade. The result is relentless bullying on a worldwide scale.”
To win a defamation case in a US court, public figures must show that the defendant engaged in “actual malice” and knowingly spread false information or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
With that in mind, the Macrons need to prove that Owens’s claims are false, hence providing proof that Ms Macron was born a woman, contrary to what the podcaster has claimed. Owens has claimed that the lawsuit is an effort to bully her, with a spokesperson for her previously saying: “This is a foreign government attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist.”
But the Macrons have said they only sued after Owens rejected three demands that she retract defamatory statements.
Who is Candace Owens?
Candace Owens is an American political commentator known for her conservative and right-wing views.
Born in April 1989, she rose to prominence for her criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement.
She served as communications director for Turning Point USA – which was co-founded by the pro-Donald Trump activist Charlie Kirk who was shot dead this month – and went on to join The Daily Wire, a conservative outlet co-founded by Ben Shapiro, where she hosted the political talk show Candace.
She left in March 2024 but continues to have a huge social media influence, with 7.1m followers on X, 6.2m on Instagram and 5m subscribers on YouTube. She also has her own podcast. Owens is known for being outspoken on various conspiracy theories, including the one surrounding Ms Macron’s gender identity, which she started discussing in 2024 in her YouTube videos and podcast, and linked social media posts.
She previously said she would stake her “entire professional reputation” on the allegation around Brigitte Macron’s gender.
Previous defamation case the Macrons lost
The Macrons initially won a defamation case in France in 2024 against two French women who made similar allegations to Owens.
But that ruling was overturned on appeal in 2025, with both women being acquitted. At the time, some reports suggested the decision meant the speculation over Ms Macron’s gender must have been true, but the appeal ruled on freedom of expression grounds, not the basis of truth.
The Macrons have now appealed to France’s highest court. They filed their lawsuit against Owens in July.
