French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, have filed a new defamation lawsuit against U.S. podcaster Candace Owens in Tennessee, escalating their legal fight over false claims about France’s first lady, The Guardian reports.

The complaint, filed Nov. 4 in Nashville, where Owens lives, brings 88 counts of defamation, false light and defamation by implication against her personally, according to reporting by The Guardian’s Lucy Campbell.

The Macrons first sued Owens and her media companies in Delaware in July 2025 over statements that included the false claim that Brigitte Macron was born a man. A judge subsequently limited that case to Owens’s Delaware-registered companies after she successfully argued that the court lacked jurisdiction over her personally. The case against the companies remains pending.

“Mrs Owens was adamant that Tennessee is where this case belongs because it’s where she lives,” a representative for the Macrons’ legal team said. “With this filing, we are giving her exactly what she has repeatedly demanded.”

The new complaint alleges Owens continued publishing defamatory material after the Delaware lawsuit was filed, including through her eight-part podcast series, “Becoming Brigitte,” and accompanying posts on X. It also alleges she has profited through merchandise sales and donations tied to her claims about the couple.

The Macrons are seeking actual, presumed and punitive damages, along with a narrowly tailored injunction barring Owens from republishing defamatory statements. Their allegations of financial motive and harm form part of their case, not findings by a court.

Owens acknowledged the new lawsuit in a post on X, noting its 88 claims and mocking the complaint’s references to a doll she uses in videos. The Guardian said it had contacted her for comment.

Sources