Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron are planning to present photographic evidence to a US court to prove that she is a woman.
Their lawyer said that the French president and his wife will present evidence to support their defamation lawsuit against American right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who promoted claims that Mrs Macron was born a man.
Tom Clare, the Macrons’ lead counsel in the case, told the BBC‘s Fame Under Fire podcast that his clients were willing to demonstrate ‘generically and specifically’ that the allegations were false.
He said there would be ‘expert testimony that will come out that will be scientific in nature’, without revealing specifics.
Asked whether the Macrons would be sharing photographs of Mrs Macron pregnant and raising her children, he said they would be presented in court where there are rules and standards, the BBC reports.
The Macrons, he said, have found the claims aired by Owens ‘extremely upsetting’.
‘It is incredibly upsetting to think that you have to go and subject yourself, to put this type of proof forward,’ he said.
Mr Clare said that it would be a process Mrs Macron ‘will have to subject herself to in a very public way’, but said she was willing in order to ‘do what it takes to set the record straight’.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron arrive for a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, as part of their three-day state visit to the United Kingdom, July 9
Conservative political commentator Candace Owens speaks during an event held by national conservative political movement ‘Turning Point’, in Detroit, Michigan, June 14, 2024
He acknowledged that the claims had been a ‘distraction’ to the French president, adding: ‘I don’t want to suggest that it somehow has thrown him off his game’.
‘He’s not immune from that because he’s the president of a country,’ he said.
The couple launched their defamation suit in July, accusing the influencer of propagating ‘outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions’ that fuelled a lie-filled ‘campaign of global humiliation’ and ‘relentless bullying’.
Ms Owens’s lawyers have moved to dismiss the claim.
Owens, who has millions of followers on social media, has publicly repeated the claims on her channels. The allegation originated online and found an audience through French bloggers Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey in a 2021 YouTube video.
Owens took to social media in March 2024 to announce she was ‘waging her entire professional reputation’ on the theory that the French first lady was born Jean-Michel Trogneux – the actual name of her older brother – before transitioning aged 30.
The conspiracy theory alleges that Brigitte did not give birth to any of her three children, and that her first husband, a 69-year-old retired banker said to have died a recluse in 2020, never existed.
The claims stem from an article published in September 2021 by French far-right magazine Faits et Documents (Facts & Documents), which initially went unnoticed.
Those allegations were seized upon after far-right blogger and Faits et Documents contributor Natacha Rey, and clairvoyant Amandine Roy, covered them in a YouTube interview that went viral.
The Macrons won their initial defamation case against Roy and Rey in 2024, but the ruling was overturned on appeal this year on freedom of expression grounds. The Macrons are also appealing that decision.
Owens said she based her allegations on what she called a ‘thorough investigation’ by French blogger Natacha Rey.
The Macrons in turn filed a 218-page lawsuit in Delaware on July 23, seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
Mr and Ms Macron said in a statement at the time: ‘Because Ms Owens systematically reaffirmed these falsehoods in response to each of our attorneys’ repeated requests for a retraction, we ultimately concluded that referring the matter to a court of law was the only remaining avenue for remedy.
‘Ms Owens’ campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety. 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.’
A statement shared with the Daily Mail said Ms Owens had ‘promoted a preposterous narrative about the Macrons, including incendiary and verifiably false accusations of identity theft, incest, violent crimes, and mind control’.
