Guwahati: French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte plan will present “photographic and scientific evidence” to prove Brigitte “is not a transgender woman after suing the United States’ far-right influencer and political commentator Candace Owens for defamation in July.”
It comes against the backdrop of Ms Owens repeatedly promoting transphobic allegations against Mrs Macron, stating she was assigned male at birth, named Jean-Michel Trogneux, and had “groomed” a teenage Emmanuel Macron before transitioning to female.
The Macrons’ lawyer, Tom Clare, one of the founders of the firm Clare Locke, told the BBC’s Fame Under Fire podcast that Mrs Macron had found the claims “incredibly upsetting” and they were a “distraction” to the French president.
“I don’t want to suggest that it somehow has thrown him off his game. 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,” Mr Clare said, adding, “and he’s not immune from that because he’s the president of a country.
He said that the “expert testimony that will come out, that will be scientific in nature.” Mr Clare did not reveal the “exact nature” of the testimony, but said that the couple was “prepared to demonstrate fully, both generically and specifically,” that the allegations were false.
Speaking about the Macrons, Mr Clare said, “These folks are obviously important on the world stage, but they’re also human beings, and it’s offensive and hurtful to them to be accused of effectively criminal acts and conspiring to lie to the world about their identities.”
“It is incredibly upsetting to think that you have to go and subject yourself to put this type of proof forward,” he said.
The 72-year-old Brigitte Macron, a mother of three, met her husband, who is 24 years younger than her, while teaching at a high school in Amiens, a city in northern France, where the then future president was her student.
When asked if the Macrons would be supplying pictures of Brigitte pregnant and raising her children, Mr Clare said they existed and would be presented in court, where there are rules and standards, the BBC reported.
Ms Owens, 36, who has over six million followers on Instagram, has repeatedly claimed that the First Lady of France is a transgender woman and “was born male.” In March 2024, she claimed she would stake her “entire professional reputation” on the allegation.
The allegation originated in fringe online spaces years earlier, through a 2021 YouTube video by French bloggers Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey, the BBC reported.
The Macrons initially won a defamation case in France against Roy and Rey in 2024, but that ruling was overturned on appeal in 2025 on freedom of expression grounds, not on the basis of truth.
Mr Clare explained that he started the investigation on Ms Owens to build a profile of who she was. They examined her networks and relationships and conducted an analysis of them. He added, “I’m not sure if it’s the motive, but we found strong connections between Owens and the French far-right.”
“She’s got a significant audience, people listen to her, not just her many listeners on her podcast, but mainstream media reports cite her in reporting on this false story,” he explained.