Defeat Reached in Brigitte Macron’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Candace Owens

First Defeat Reached in Brigitte Macron’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Candace Owens

Two companies tied to commentator Candace Owens must still answer Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron’s defamation lawsuit, a Delaware judge ruled Tuesday. The same order found the court has no jurisdiction over Owens herself.

Candace Owens LLC and Georgetom Inc. are both registered in Delaware. That registration keeps the claims against them alive in the state’s Superior Court.

Judge Sheldon Rennie reached a different conclusion about Owens personally. 

She lives in Tennessee, and he determined his court cannot exercise jurisdiction over her. The order hands the Macrons their first legal setback in the case.

The ruling carries a financial consequence. If the Macrons prevail, no judgment could be assigned to Owens, and her personal assets would likely remain protected.

Rennie did not decide Owens’ motion to dismiss the litigation. He instead directed both sides to brief him further on how French defamation law and statutes of limitation intersect with U.S. law.

Owens thanked the judge in a social media statement. She wrote that the case “represents one of the grossest legal overreaches by a foreign government leader in human history”.

She also described the lawsuit as “a sitting president’s attempt to personally bankrupt a single podcaster from outside the nation in which he governs”.

The Macrons filed their suit in July 2025 against Owens and the two businesses. 

They allege she ran a campaign of global humiliation against the couple, including the unfounded claim that the French first lady was born male.

The complaint says Owens pushed false claims and conspiracy theories “to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety and make money”.

One claim holds that Mrs Macron, 73, was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux. That is the name of her older brother.

The filing accuses Owens of going well beyond one allegation. 

“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 complaint said.

“The result,” the complaint added, “is relentless bullying on a worldwide scale.”

Owens launched her podcast series Becoming Brigitte in 2025. 

On it, she claimed Mrs Macron stole another person’s identity and transitioned to female, and that the Macrons are blood relatives committing incest. Those claims are false.

The gender claim first appeared in a 2021 “investigation” published by Faits et Documents (Facts & Documents), a small, far-Right French magazine accused of platforming anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories. 

Self-styled independent journalist Natacha Rey and Xavier Poussard co-authored the piece, which went unnoticed for some time.

Rey later discussed her speculation on YouTube with “spiritual medium” Delphine Jégousse, who also goes by Amandine Roy. 

Their four-hour video went viral before France’s 2022 presidential election.

A court found in September 2024 that Rey had defamed Mrs Macron. Owens took up the story anyway.

French courts have acted separately. Earlier this year, a Paris court found ten people guilty of cyber-bullying for spreading “malicious” claims that the first lady was born a man. 

The judges handed down suspended prison sentences of up to eight months and called the comments “particularly degrading and insulting”.

The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 65, had posted numerous false claims about her gender. 

They also linked the 24-year age gap between Mrs Macron and her husband to paedophilia.

Mrs Macron did not attend the two-day trial in October 2025. 

Speaking on TF1 national television after the sentencing, she said she launched legal proceedings to “set an example” against harassment. Some of the posts, she noted, had been viewed tens of thousands of times.

Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified about the “deterioration” of her mother’s life as the online harassment intensified. 

“She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Ms Auzière told the court.

Ms Auzière said the impact reached the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.

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