French first lady Brigitte Macron is taking a conspiracy theory head-on and plans to show “photographic and scientific evidence” in court to prove she is, in fact, a woman.
The case stems from right-wing podcaster Candace Owens, who has been pushing a viral rumor that Macron was born male and has been hiding it for decades. French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife have filed a lawsuit in the United States against Owens, calling her claims a “campaign of global humiliation.”
Owens, 36, hasn’t backed down. Back in March, she even wrote on X that she would “stake [her] entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man.” At the same time, she has asked a court to throw out the lawsuit.
The Macrons’ attorney, Tom Clare, told the BBC that the situation has been devastating for the couple, but they’re ready to fight back with hard evidence.
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“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,” Clare said of the first lady. “But she’s willing to do it. She is firmly resolved to do what it takes to set the record straight.”
Clare said the couple’s legal team will bring in expert testimony, including scientific evidence, to confirm Brigitte’s biological sex. He suggested that family photographs of her pregnant and raising her children could also be shown in court, emphasizing that such images exist and will meet the standards required in legal proceedings.
The lawsuit, filed in July 2025, accuses Owens of deliberately spreading falsehoods for attention. “Rather than engage with President and Mrs. Macron’s attempts to set the record straight, Owens mocked them and used them as additional fodder for her frenzied fan base,” the court filing reads. “These claims are demonstrably false, and Owens knew they were false when she published them. Yet, she published them anyway.”
President Macron, 47, has also felt the strain, according to Clare. “I don’t want to suggest that it somehow has thrown him off his game,” he explained. “But just like anybody who is juggling a career and a family life as well, when your family is under attack, it wears on you. And he’s not immune from that because he’s the president of a country.”
This lawsuit isn’t the first tied to the rumor. Earlier this year, a French court overturned libel convictions against Amandine Roy, a self-described medium, and Natacha Rey, an independent journalist, who promoted the same claims in a YouTube video. Both women are now named in the Macrons’ U.S. lawsuit, and Brigitte has appealed her case in France to the nation’s highest court.
Owens, meanwhile, has dismissed the case as an attack on free speech. A spokesperson for her told PEOPLE, “Candace Owens is not shutting up. This is a foreign government attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist.” The statement added, “In France, politicians can bully journalists, but this is not France. It’s America.”
The court battle is likely to be closely watched in both France and the United States, given its mix of politics, personal reputation, and the growing global influence of viral conspiracy theories.