United States: the Macron couple's lawsuits against Candace Owens restricted after a judge's decision

A magistrate in the American state of Delaware ruled that the influencer Candace Owens, sued for defamation by the Macron couple after exploiting the false information according to which the president's wife was “born a man”, could not be held personally responsible.

The legal action by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron against the two companies of the far-right American blogger is however valid and can continue, judge Sheldon Rennie ruled in his decision on Tuesday.

Candace Owens, who should therefore not have to suffer negative consequences on her own property in the event of a legal victory for the Macron couple, said she was “extremely grateful” after this interim judgment. Judge Rennie also considered that as the Macrons were French, the limitation period applicable under French law could apply. In the event of defamation, this is three months from the commission of the facts, but it can be extended to one year for comments of a racist, sexist, homophobic or disability-related nature.

Before ruling, the magistrate therefore asked the parties to present their arguments on the limitation period. If he ultimately retains the three-month deadline, the Macron couple could be dismissed. The French president and his wife launched these defamation suits in the summer of 2025, claiming that Candace Owens had caused them “considerable and irreparable harm”.

This infox on Brigitte Macron, which has resurfaced regularly in France on social networks since her husband's first election in 2017, has flourished abroad, in particular in the United States, after the podcaster seized it in March 2024, giving it a global echo since January 2025 through a series of videos entitled “Becoming Brigitte”.

In their complaint before a Delaware court, the presidential couple's lawyers claim that Candace Owens was fully aware of the falsity of these allegations and systematically rejected all requests for rectification, persisting in her “smear campaign” to “gain notoriety and make money”.

According to this false information, widely relayed in France by movements combining conspiracies, covid-sceptics or the far right, Brigitte Macron, née Trogneux, would never have existed, but her brother Jean-Michel would have taken this identity after changing sex.