French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, are suing a right-wing American podcaster over a “relentless campaign” claiming the first lady was born a man.
The Macrons filed a 218-page defamation complaint on Wednesday (local time) in the Delaware Superior Court, seeking a jury trial and punitive damages.
The couple accuse popular podcaster Candace Owens, who has millions of followers, of false and defamatory statements in her eight-part series called Becoming Brigitte.
The Macrons’ complaint states that Owens revived the conspiracy theory in March with a YouTube video titled “Is France’s First Lady a Man?”.
Owens promoted the conspiracy as “likely the biggest scandal in political history”.
She followed that up with numerous videos about Brigitte in the Becoming Brigitte series, as well as selling merchandise, according to the claim.
The Macrons’ complaint alleges Owens was the first person to bring these baseless claims to the US media and an international audience, reports CNN.
“Owens’ campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety,” Macron lawyer, Tom Clare said.
“We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused.
“It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all.”
The Macrons said Owens had spread “verifiably false and devastating lies” about them.
These included that Brigitte Macron was born a man, that Macron and his wife were blood relatives and that Macron was chosen to be France’s president as part of a CIA-operated mind control program.
“If ever there was a clear-cut case of defamation, this is it,” the couple’s statement said.
“Owens both promoted and expanded on those falsehoods and invented new ones, all designed to cause maximum harm to the Macrons and maximise attention and financial gain for herself.”
On Instagram, Owens posted a screenshot picture of the couple with the caption: “I will be coming for this wig today. Stay tuned.”
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