WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Brigitte Macron has dropped her defamation lawsuit against Candace Owens.
OUR VERDICT
False. She has not dropped her defamation lawsuit against Candace Owens, which has has been filed in Delaware.
AAP FACTCHECK - Brigitte Macron has not withdrawn her defamation lawsuit against US podcaster and commentator Candace Owens, despite claims made online.
Ms Macron and her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, are suing Ms Owens and her businesses, accusing her of falsely claiming the first lady is transgender and a biological male.
The claim the legal action has been dropped because a DNA test would have shown Ms Macron to be male appears in a Facebook post from July 31, 2025.
"Brigitte Macron drops the 22 count defamation lawsuit against Candace Owens…. Hahaha because a DNA test would have proved "she's a biological male"…. I can't stop laughing," it reads.
Other posts making the claim reference a social media graphic created by The Western Journal, a conservative news website based in Phoenix, Arizona.
A headline overlaying the graphic reads: "PRESIDENT MACRON DROPS 22-COUNT DEFAMATION LAWSUIT ON CANDACE OWENS."
Social media users appear to have misinterpreted the word "drops" in the headline to mean the lawsuit has been withdrawn, rather than filed.
The full Western Journal article, from July 23, 2025, reports the Macrons are suing Ms Owens in the US state of Delaware.
The headline has since been updated to use the word "files" instead of "drops".
Ms Owens worked for conservative media outlet Daily Wire before launching her podcast in 2024, which has millions of followers.
She has promoted various conspiracy theories related to vaccines, the moon landing and the Holocaust.
Lawsuit documents allege that since March 2024, Ms Owens has published and repeated various false claims, including: Ms Macron was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux; he transitioned to become Brigitte; and Mr Macron was chosen to be president of France as part of a CIA-operated program.
Ms Owens has continued the ongoing attacks against the Macrons in order to promote her media platform and make money, the legal document filed on July 23, 2025, states (page 1).
The complaint explains that the Macrons sent Ms Owens a detailed email letter in December 2024 presenting evidence to disprove her various claims, including childhood photos and Ms Macron's birth announcement in a local newspaper (p31).
However, Ms Owens released a YouTube video on July 24, 2025, in which she stands by her claims and labels the defamation suit a public relations strategy.
The baseless theory about Ms Macron is part of a wider trend known as "transvestigating", an online conspiracy whereby individuals claim they can "prove" someone is secretly transgender by analysing their features or old photographs.
AAP FactCheck has previously debunked a fake image used to spread the false claim Ms Macron was born a man.
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