In a brazen escalation that should alarm anyone who values free debate, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte have dragged American commentator Candace Owens into a Delaware courtroom, accusing her of spreading the lurid claim that the First Lady was born male. The 22-count complaint alleges Owens used the allegation to boost her platform and profits, turning private lives into public spectacle for personal gain.
The Macrons’ legal team says they will answer those smears with photographic and scientific evidence — even offering pregnancy pictures and expert testimony — to prove Brigitte’s identity in open court. Their lawyer insists Mrs. Macron is willing to subject herself to public scrutiny to extinguish the rumor, an extraordinary move that spotlights how global elites respond when cornered.
Owens has doubled down, airing the story in an eight-part podcast called “Becoming Brigitte” and blasting the suit as an attack on American free speech while seeking dismissal on jurisdictional grounds. Conservatives should call out bad-faith conspiracies when they see them, but we must also be skeptical of any effort to use transnational litigation as a cudgel against political speech.
This fight is not merely about one tasteless allegation; it is about precedent. If politicians and their spouses can chase down critics in foreign forums and demand courts police uncomfortable questions, then dissent itself will become a luxury regulated by the powerful and their PR firms.
Remember, these rumors did not spring up overnight — they circulated on fringe French blogs years ago and produced a messy legal trail in France, including rulings that were later overturned on appeal. That messy history should give American judges pause before turning internet gossip into an international legal cause célèbre.
Real patriots want both truth and liberty: demand clear evidence, but also resist the idea that European elites can outsource censorship to American courthouses whenever a conservative voice gets under their skin. Let the facts be presented, let justice run its course, and above all defend the right of Americans to ask hard questions about the powerful without immediate fear of being shut down by cross-border legal warfare.
