France's president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte Macron, intend to provide "scientific" evidence in court to disprove claims she is transgender.
It is the first development in a legal challenge mounted by the French presidential couple against American conservative commentator Candace Owens two months ago.
Ms Owens has propagated unsubstantiated claims that the first lady was born male and used to go by the name Jean-Michel Trogneux — who in reality is Ms Macron's older brother.
Here's what to know about the case.
What is the Macrons-Candace Owens case?
In July, the Macrons sued Ms Owens for defamation at the Superior Court in Delaware with a 218-page complaint seeking a jury trial and punitive damages.
The lawsuit related to allegations Ms Owens made online in March last year about the French first lady's biological sex: "[I] would stake [my] entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man."
"Owens disregarded all credible evidence disproving her claim in favor of platforming known conspiracy theorists and proven defamers. And rather than engage with President and Mrs. Macron's attempts to set the record straight, Owens mocked them and used them as additional fodder for her frenzied fan base," the complaint read.
When requested to retract her remarks, the complaint said, Ms Owens did not oblige and instead "retaliated" against the Macrons by repeating the claims in an eight-part YouTube podcast series titled Becoming Brigitte, and through posts on her X account.
The podcast was released at the start of this year, 12 months after Ms Owens first publicly claimed Ms Macron was transgender.
It also included claims the Macrons were in an incestual relationship, that Mr Macron became president courtesy of a CIA "mind control program", and that the couple had committed forgery, fraud and abuses of power to suppress these apparent truths.
Ms Owens's allegations were labelled "outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched" in the defamation suit.
The lawsuit was filed in Delaware because the 36-year-old's limited liability company, Defendant Candace Owens LLC, the entity through which she manages her Facebook and X accounts, is incorporated in the state.
What is the Macrons' legal argument?
To prove defamation in the United States, the plaintiffs must prove their reputation was damaged as a result of a false statement or statements the defendant made to a third party.
This includes both proving the claims in question were false and that the defendant made them knowing they were false, or with reckless disregard for the truth. The plaintiff also needs to prove economic loss to claim damages.
Lawyers for the Macrons will argue Ms Owens published her claims with reckless disregard for the truth and that they were "false and devastating lies".
They will also say "substantial damage" has been brought to the French president and first lady, both reputational and economic:
"As a direct and proximate result of Defendants' false Statements, President and Mrs. Macron have suffered substantial economic damages, including, among other things, loss of future business opportunities and such other compounding and growing losses as will be shown at trial.
As a direct and proximate result of Defendants' false Statements President and Mrs. Macron have suffered substantial reputational damage and have had to spend considerable sums of money to correct the public record about their actions and mitigate the reputational harm they have suffered, including costs incurred in hiring legal counsel to clear their name in the court of public opinion.
Defendants published the Statements maliciously, willfully, wantonly, with common law malice, with actual malice, with a conscious, reckless, and willful indifference to President and Mrs. Macron's rights, and with a desire to cause injury to President and Mrs. Macron. Accordingly, punitive damages are appropriate."
What evidence is to be presented?
Tom Clare, the lawyer representing the Macrons, told the BBC's Fame Under Fire podcast on Thursday that documentation attesting to Ms Macron's female sex since birth would be tendered when the case went to court.
"Expert testimony … will come out that will be scientific in nature," he said.
Mr Clare did not detail the specifics of the evidence to be presented but said the Macrons were "prepared to demonstrate fully, both generically and specifically," that Ms Owens's claims were false.
"It is incredibly upsetting to think that you have to go and subject yourself, to put this type of proof forward," he said.
"It is a process that she [Brigitte Macron] will have to subject herself to in a very public way. But she's willing to do it. She is firmly resolved to do what it takes to set the record straight.
"If that unpleasantness and that discomfort that she has of opening herself up in that way is what it takes to set a record straight and stop this, she's 100 per cent ready to meet that burden."
An image of Ms Macron's birth announcement from April 13, 1953, a photograph of her as a child with her family, and another photo from the day of her first wedding in 1974 were submitted as part of the defamation suit in July.
Ms Macron, 72, was born Brigitte Trogneux in the northern French city of Amiens. She has three children from a previous marriage. Mr Clare told the BBC that photos of her pregnancy would be presented in court.
Who is Candace Owens?
Ms Owens, whose views have sometimes been described as far-right, is known for her conservative activism in the US political domain, and is allied to the Republican movement.
Initially critical of Donald Trump, she began producing pro-Trump commentary in 2017, the same year she went on to be hired for a communications role at Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organisation run by MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while giving a speech at a university in Utah earlier this month.
"I became a conservative overnight," she said in 2017. "I realised that liberals were actually the racists, that liberals were actually the trolls."
Ms Owens has espoused anti-Israel views, numerous conspiracy theories relating to the LGBTQIA+, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, and anti-vax ideology, among other controversial beliefs.
She was refused entry to Australia for a speaking tour last year after the federal government ruled her visit would be against the national interest.
"From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about [Nazi physician Josef] Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction," Immigration Minister Tony Burke said at the time.
Ms Owens has a large following online, with more than 5 million subscribers on YouTube, 6 million on Instagram and 7 million on X, formerly Twitter.
She continues to stand by her claims about Ms Macron's sex, and has circulated them on all her social media platforms, as well as media outlets, several times since last year.
Ms Owens has repeatedly stated that she believes Ms Macron is Mr Trogneux. According to the Macrons' defamation suit, Mr Trogneux is Ms Macron's 80-year-old brother, who lives in the family's hometown of Amiens.
Her lawyers have responded to the case with a motion to dismiss, which is a formal written request by a defendant for some or all the claims in a lawsuit to be thrown out.
The allegation about Ms Macron being a man first surfaced online in 2021 in a YouTube video by Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey, who are both involved in a separate court case with the French first lady.
