PARIS (AP) — Legal representation for the French First Family has announced plans to pursue “substantial” damages against U.S. conservative influencer Candace Owens if she continues to assert that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, is actually a man.
The couple’s attorney, Tom Clare, mentioned to CNN that their defamation lawsuit filed in a Delaware court on Wednesday was “really a last resort” following an ineffective yearlong attempt to engage with Owens, encouraging her to “do the right thing: tell the truth, stop spreading these lies.”
“Every time we’ve tried that approach, she has ridiculed the Macrons and mocked our attempts to correct the misinformation,” Clare stated. “Enough is enough, and the time has come to hold her responsible.”
The complaint against Owens lays out “extensive evidence” that Brigitte Macron “was born a woman, she’s always been a woman,” he said.
“We’ll put forward our damage claim at trial, but if she continues to double down between now and the time of trial, it will be a substantial award,” he said.
In Paris, the presidential office had no immediate comment.
The Macrons have been married since 2007, and Emmanuel Macron has been France’s president since 2017.
The couple first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron was then Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three children.
Emmanuel Macron moved to Paris for his last year of high school, but promised to marry Brigitte. She later moved to the French capital to join him and divorced before they finally married.
