Macrons file defamation suit against right-wing US podcaster Candace Owens

A right-wing US podcaster who claimed the former French president’s spouse was a man has filed a defamation lawsuit against Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte.

The Macrons filed a 218-page complaint against Candace Owens, who has millions of YouTube subscribers, on Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court, and demands an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

The Macrons claimed in a statement from their attorney that they had filed the lawsuit after Owens repeatedly refused to retract statements made in Becoming Brigitte, an eight-part YouTube and podcast series.

The Macrons claim that the series “verifiably spread false and devastating lies,” including that Brigitte changed her gender and that the Macrons are blood relatives who carry out incest.

The Macrons’ complaint addresses circumstances that led to their meeting, when Brigitte was a teacher and the current president, who is now 47 years old. Their relationship “continued to be within the bounds of the law,” it was stated.

The Macrons claimed that Owens’ defamation campaign was clearly intended to afflict and pain us and our families and to garner media and notoriety.

She refused, despite the fact that we gave her every chance to refute these claims. We sincerely hope that this lawsuit will put an end to this defamation campaign, they continued.

According to Owens, “This lawsuit is littered with factual errors” and is a result of an “obvious and desperate public relations strategy” to smear her character in her podcast on Wednesday.

Despite lawyers for both sides having been communicating since January, Owens added that she had not anticipated a lawsuit was coming.

After Brigitte repeatedly declined to interview Owens, a spokesperson for the lawsuit claimed that it was simply an attempt to intimidate her.

The spokesperson claimed that “this is a foreign government that is robbing an American independent journalist of their First Amendment rights.”

Have international leaders previously filed defamation lawsuits?

A world leader is once again suing for defamation in this unusual case.

Donald Trump has also argued in court, including in a $ 10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, who claimed he gave Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious financier, a lewd birthday greeting in 2003.

The Journal expressed complete confidence in its reporting and said it would fight that case.

Trump and Walt Disney-owned ABC reached a $15 million settlement in December over an untrue allegation that a jury found him guilty of rape in a civil lawsuit rather than sexual assault.