French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte will present scientific evidence to a US court to prove she was not born a man, their lawyer has said. The couple filed a defamation suit in July against rightwing influencer Candace Owens and her business, alleging she is using the false claims to boost her media profile and generate revenue.
Owens said last year she would stake her professional reputation on the claim that Brigitte Macron is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux, and has repeated it in an eight-part podcast series. The Macrons' lawyer, Tom Clare, told the BBC's Fame under Fire podcast that Brigitte found the allegations incredibly upsetting and that they were a distraction for the president.
Clare said expert testimony would be scientific in nature, without giving details, and that the couple were prepared to demonstrate fully that the claims were untrue. Photos of Brigitte pregnant and raising her children will be presented, he added. The Macrons' suit states that Trogneux is Brigitte's older brother, who lives in Amiens and attended Emmanuel Macron's presidential inaugurations.
Brigitte Macron, 72, is 24 years older than her husband, whom she met at a theatre workshop she was running. She has three children from a previous marriage and seven grandchildren. The claim she was born male first went viral in France in 2021, and she and her brother previously won a defamation case against two bloggers, though an appeals court later overturned that decision.
Owens' lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss, arguing the case should not have been brought in Delaware, where her businesses are incorporated. Owens has insisted she stands by her allegations.
