Five years ago, Candace Owens was a mid-tier political operative working for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. Now she’s a globally famous conservative firebrand with one of the fastest-growing independent media platforms in the U.S., raking in cash through controversy. But the same contrarian playbook that launched her solo career now threatens the media empire she built. Her company generates up to $10 million in revenues per year, according to an analysis by Fortune, implying that the company’s valuation would be multiples of that.
The conservative podcaster and provocateur is facing a high-stakes defamation lawsuit filed by French President Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron, the first lady. The suit is set to test whether the controversy-as-currency oeuvre that made Owens rich and gave her a media brand that reaches tens of millions of people can survive what experts say will be an immensely costly legal battle.
The 219-page complaint, filed in Delaware Superior Court in July 2025, accuses Owens of orchestrating a “campaign of global humiliation” by promoting the conspiracy theory that Brigitte Macron was born male.
The plaintiffs’ weapon of choice: Clare Locke, the law firm that extracted a record-shattering $787.5 million settlement from Fox News on behalf of Dominion Voting Systems—the largest media defamation payout in American history. The Macrons vehemently deny Owens’s allegations. Owens has vowed to fight the suit.
