The Macrons v. Candace Owens: consequences for conspiracy theorists?

Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte have filed a defamation lawsuit against right-wing American podcaster Candace Owens, who has long claimed that France's first lady was born male.

The unfounded allegation has become "one of the biggest fake news stories worldwide", Emmanuelle Anizon, who has written a book on the origins of the rumour, told The Guardian. "A billion people have seen it." But now the Macrons appear to have had enough.

Heinous and bizarre

The legal action, filed last week in the US state of Delaware, said Owens has been spreading an "outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched" conspiracy theory that Brigitte, whose maiden name was Trogneux, was born as "Jean-Michel", the name of one of her older brothers.

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The real Jean-Michel is 80 years old and lives in the family's home town of Amiens. He lives a private life but, confounding the conspiracy, "he was present in public" alongside his sister at both of Emmanuel Macron's presidential inaugurations.

Even "a newspaper announcement of her 1953 birth, photos of her taking communion at 7, and photos of her first wedding" have not been enough to deter the conspiracy theorists, said Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times. Owens remains "defiant" that she will prevail in court. "Personally, I think she should be nervous."

Accusing high-profile women of being transgender "has become fashionable on the transphobic far right". Some "heinous conspiracy theorists" have made the same "bizarre charge" against Michelle Obama. "These outlandish accusations spring from the impulse to inflict as much political damage as possible."

Researchers believe conspiracy theorists target women who are "influential, politically left-leaning and break gender stereotypes", said Politifact. That's because the conservative movement "favours traditional gender roles", and these rumours can also play into "anti-transgender rhetoric".

Owens 'has won'

This "definitely wasn’t on my bingo card for 2025", said Julia Molony in the Irish Independent. I "suspect the Macrons simply couldn't resist this opportunity to seize the moral high ground". But taking part in a trial "risks tarnishing the dignified, statesmen-like image" that he's "trying to reinforce as a silent rebuke to the vulgarities of populism".

Perhaps the case "serves as a proxy for a broader, epoch-defining ideological clash between European liberalism and the anti-enlightenment neo-conservatism" of America under Trump. The Macrons might be "hoping to jog memories" of a "shared philosophical history" between the two nations. Well, "it's a nice idea, but I fear their mission is doomed".

Given the "consistency of her arguments", Owens will likely suggest that she believed Brigitte's "allegedly masculine birth to be true", said Alexander Larman in The Spectator. It will be "phenomenally hard" for any lawyer to prove otherwise.

All the "tawdry and embarrassing details" mean this story has become the "very opposite of what Macron is trying to achieve". Even if the president and his wife "emerge triumphant" in the case, the "reputational damage and resulting humiliation" is likely to be "horrendous". So in reality Owens has "already won".

The case means Owens now has "what all podcasters crave: many months of material and, potentially, "many more conspiracy-minded listeners hanging on her every word", said The Times.

But perhaps the real takeaway is that we've all become "so inured to surreality" that the French president suing a podcaster who tells her listeners that he is "a product of a CIA human experiment" and a "blood relative of his wife", who is also her own brother, is just "another day in Trumpworld".