A Lie Said France’s First Lady Was Born a Man. It Reached a Delaware Court.
For years, a false claim that France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, was born male circulated across social media, amplified by the American commentator Candace Owens. A Paris court convicted 10 people over the campaign in January, and on July 27, 2026, a Delaware judge heard Owens’s bid to throw out the Macrons’ defamation suit — and has yet to rule.
A false claim that has trailed France’s first lady for years — that Brigitte Macron was born a man — is now being weighed in an American courtroom. On July 27, a judge in Delaware Superior Court heard arguments on whether to dismiss a defamation suit that Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron brought against Candace Owens, a U.S. commentator who has heavily promoted the assertion; the judge adjourned without ruling, and as of early August the motion remained pending, Bloomberg Law reported. The Macrons filed the case in July 2025, accusing Owens of promoting and profiting from a conspiracy theory they say is demonstrably false, PBS NewsHour reported.
A rumor that became a business
The theory holds that Brigitte Macron was born male under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux — in reality the name of her older brother — and that she secretly transitioned, a baseless narrative that has also folded in a claim that she is a blood relative of her husband, CNN reported. Owens turned the claim into a video series titled “Becoming Brigitte” and has pledged to stand by it publicly, according to PBS NewsHour. In their complaint, the Macrons say Owens amplified and monetized the falsehoods across her podcast and social-media accounts, framing the effort as a campaign of humiliation; they are represented by Clare Locke, the firm behind Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against Fox News, the BBC reported.
A verdict in Paris
The rumor has already produced criminal convictions in France. On Jan. 5, a Paris court found 10 people guilty of cyberbullying Brigitte Macron by spreading malicious and false claims about her gender and sexuality, The Washington Post reported. Eight men and two women, among them an elected official and a teacher, were convicted; one defendant — a self-described medium who helped drive the rumor with a lengthy online video — received a six-month prison sentence, while others were handed suspended terms, according to CBS News. All 10 were ordered to jointly pay 10,000 euros in damages to Brigitte Macron and to attend cyberbullying-awareness training, PBS NewsHour reported. Those defendants are separate from Owens, who is not part of the French case.
The fight moves to Delaware
The U.S. suit turns first on where it can be heard. Owens has asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the dispute belongs in France — where a three-month deadline for defamation claims would have long since expired — rather than Delaware, whose statute of limitations is longer; the Macrons counter that Owens’s Delaware-registered companies published the material and give the state jurisdiction, Bloomberg Law reported. The court has not yet decided whether the case will proceed. However it rules, the litigation has become a test of whether a viral, gender-based conspiracy theory — the kind researchers describe as gendered disinformation, aimed disproportionately at women in public life — can carry legal consequences for those who spread it for reach and revenue. In France, a court has already said it can.