Why is France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron taking steps in a US court to prove she’s a woman?

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron are planning on presenting photographic and “scientific” evidence to a US court to prove Brigitte is a woman.

Speaking to the BBC yesterday, the Macrons’ lawyer for the case, Tom Clare, said there would be “expert testimony” that will be “scientific in nature”.

He also said the Macrons were ready to show “both generically and specifically” that Brigitte is a woman as part of a defamation case against Candace Owens, who falsely claims that she was “born a man”.

Who is Candace Owens?

Candace Owens is a popular right-wing influencer and podcaster.

At time of writing, she has the 14^th most listened to podcast on Spotify in the United States (in Ireland she’s ranked 57 on the Spotify podcast charts).

She has risen in both charts this week, likely because of her association with fellow right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, who was murdered at a Utah university campus last week.

She uploaded a 24-minute video following Kirk’s killing, titled “To My Friend, Charlie Kirk”.

Owens worked for Kirk’s Turning Point from 2017 and 2019 and said that she and Kirk were “totally locked in”.

What has she been saying about Brigitte Macron?

Owens has been at the forefront of a false claim that Brigitte was born as a man called Jean-Michel Trogneux.

In January of this year, Owens released an eight-part YouTube and podcast series called “Becoming Brigitte”, in which she repeats the baseless claim that had first spread in France just weeks before the 2022 presidential election.

In reality, Jean-Michel Trogneux is Brigitte’s brother and they have already taken legal action against two women who posted a Youtube video in December 2021 alleging Brigitte had once been a man named Jean-Michel.

The two women were convicted in September of last year of spreading false claims but the ruling was overturned by a Paris appeals court and Macron appealed to the highest appeals court, the Court de Cassation, in July.

Brigette Macron is among a group of influential women – including former US first lady Michelle Obama and New Zealand ex-premier Jacinda Ardern – who have fallen victim to a growing trend: disinformation about their gender or sexuality to mock or humiliate them.

When did the Macrons take action against Candace Owens?

In July, the Macrons filed the defamation lawsuit against Owens.

The 218-page complaint was filed by the Macrons in Delaware Superior Court and seeks a jury trial and unspecified punitive damages.

In a statement released by their lawyer, the Macrons said they filed the lawsuit after Owens repeatedly ignored requests to retract false and defamatory statements made on “Becoming Brigitte.”

In addition to containing false claims that Brigitte is a man, the podcast includes baseless allegations that Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron are blood relatives and that Macron was chosen to be France’s president as part of a CIA-operated mind control program.

Last month, Emmanuel Macron told French magazine, Paris Match, that the defamation case is “about defending my honour because this is nonsense”.

“This is someone who knew full well that she had false information and did so with the aim of causing harm, in the service of an ideology and with established connections to far-right leaders.”

The president’s relationship with his wife, 24 years his senior, whom he met while she was a teacher and he was still a teenager, is periodically a source of media attention in France and abroad.

Their lawyer, Tom Clare, added: “If ever there was a clear-cut case of defamation, this is it.”

“Owens both promoted and expanded on those falsehoods and invented new ones, all designed to cause maximum harm to the Macrons and maximize attention and financial gain for herself.”

How has Candace Owens responded to the defamation case?

Her lawyers have responded with a motion to dismiss, arguing that the case should not have been filed in Delaware, as she says it does not relate to her businesses, which are incorporated in the state.

They claim forcing her to defend the case in Delaware could cause “substantial financial and operational hardship”.

And as of last month, Owens was continuing to push the false claim that Brigitte is a man and even offered to bet Piers Morgan $300,000 that she was “born a man”.

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