French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron have filed a 218-page, 22-count defamation lawsuit in Delaware Superior Court against U.S. media personality Candace Owens. The complaint, lodged on 23 July, alleges Owens conducted a “campaign of global humiliation” by repeatedly stating in podcasts and social-media posts that Brigitte Macron was born male under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux. The Macrons are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial. According to the filing, Owens ignored three formal demands for retraction and expanded the allegations through an eight-episode YouTube series entitled “Becoming Brigitte,” which has drawn millions of views. Owens responded on her show that the suit is “a foreign government attacking First Amendment rights,” but U.S. defamation law requires the Macrons to prove she acted with actual malice—knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth. The American action follows a setback for the first lady in France. On 10 July, the Paris Court of Appeal overturned earlier libel convictions against journalist Natacha Rey and blogger Amandine Roy, who had been fined for the same gender-based claims. Brigitte Macron and prosecutors have appealed that acquittal to the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court. Taken together, the cross-border cases underscore the challenges public figures face in countering viral online disinformation and highlight the contrasting legal thresholds in French and U.S. courts for proving defamation.