Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron have filed a new federal defamation lawsuit against Candace Owens, this time in the city she calls home. The 409-page complaint landed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, accusing the conservative commentator of spreading false claims about Brigitte Macron's identity and the couple's marriage.
A Fresh Filing in Owens's Own Backyard
Filings appeared in the Middle District of Tennessee under Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. on Wednesday, according to the Nashville Scene, which reported that the sprawling 409-page complaint lays out the Macrons' allegations in detail. Per the complaint, Owens claimed that Brigitte Macron was born a man and had assumed another person's identity to become Brigitte, and the Macrons say Owens promoted conspiracy theories about their relationship and alleged they committed crimes to conceal the supposed truth, according to WKRN News 2. The Macrons' attorneys argue Tennessee is the appropriate venue because Owens lives in Nashville and allegedly created and published the material there, WKRN reports.
The complaint traces Owens's identity claim back to March 2024, when she first publicly made the allegation, per WKRN's reporting on the filing. Owens reportedly said at the time that she would stake her entire professional reputation on Brigitte Macron being a man, and she went on to produce an eight-part podcast series titled “Becoming Brigitte.” The complaint further alleges that Owens sold merchandise mocking the Macrons and collected donations tied to her coverage of the couple, according to the same filing details reported by WKRN.
Why Nashville, and Why Now
The Daily Wire, the conservative media outlet where Owens built much of her platform, moved its operations from Los Angeles to Nashville in 2020, the Nashville Scene notes. The new Tennessee case follows a separate defamation lawsuit the Macrons filed in Delaware on July 23, 2025, and the Macrons accused Owens of continuing the same claims even after that earlier suit was filed, per the Nashville Scene's account.
That Delaware case took a turn on October 27, 2026, when a judge dismissed all claims against Owens personally for lack of jurisdiction, finding the court lacked authority over her because she lives in Tennessee, according to The New York Times. Owens had challenged whether the Delaware court had personal jurisdiction over her, and the dismissal came without prejudice on October 27, per WKRN. Claims against two business entities associated with Owens remain pending in the Delaware case, the Times reports — a detail corroborated by a Delaware CourtConnect docket report identifying the case, styled Emmanuel Macron v. Candace Owens, et al., with a jury-trial designation and a July 23, 2025 filing date, though that docket snippet explicitly labels itself not an official document.
What the Macrons Are Seeking
In the Nashville filing, the Macrons are pursuing a jury trial and unspecified damages, the Nashville Scene reports. WKRN's reporting on the complaint adds that the couple is seeking actual, presumed and punitive damages, along with an injunction barring Owens from republishing any statements a court determines to be defamatory.
This is not the first time claims like these have ended up in a courtroom. In 2024, Brigitte Macron won a defamation case in France against other far-right media figures who had advanced similar claims, according to the Nashville Scene. That same month, two women were convicted in France of spreading false claims after posting a YouTube video in December 2021 alleging Brigitte Macron had once been a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux, per Le Monde.
Owens, for her part, is already facing other defamation litigation unrelated to the Macrons. The Times reports that she faces two separate defamation lawsuits over her commentary on Charlie Kirk's killing, filed in federal courts in Tennessee and Utah, both of which remain pending according to the same report.
