5 years in the past, Candace Owens was a mid-tier political operative working for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Level USA. Now, she’s a globally well-known conservative firebrand with one of many fastest-growing unbiased media platforms within the U.S., raking in money via controversy. However the identical contrarian playbook that launched her solo profession now threatens the media empire she constructed. Her firm generates as much as $10 million in revenues per 12 months, in response to an evaluation by Fortune, implying that the corporate’s valuation can be multiples of that.
The conservative podcaster and provocateur is dealing with a high-stakes defamation lawsuit filed by French President Emmanuel Macron and First Girl Brigitte Macron. The swimsuit is about to check whether or not the controversy-as-currency oeuvre that made her wealthy, and gave her a media model that reaches tens of hundreds of thousands of individuals, can survive what specialists say can be an immensely pricey authorized battle.
The 219-page grievance, filed in Delaware Superior Court docket in July 2025, accuses Owens of orchestrating a “marketing campaign of worldwide humiliation” by selling the conspiracy idea that Brigitte Macron was born male.
The plaintiffs’ weapon of alternative: Clare Locke, the regulation agency that extracted a record-shattering $787.5 million settlement from Fox Information on behalf of Dominion Voting Programs—the most important media defamation payout in American historical past. The Macrons vehemently deny Owens’ allegations. Owens has vowed to battle the swimsuit.
Apparently, the swimsuit primarily alleges that spreading false info is basically Owens’ enterprise mannequin.
The grievance names three defendants: Candace Owens personally, Candace Owens LLC (her Delaware firm managing social media and advert income), and GeorgeTom, Inc. (presumably named after her husband George Farmer, who’s instantly concerned within the enterprise and operates her web site and podcast distribution). In naming all three events, the swimsuit takes purpose not solely at Owens personally, but additionally her whole recognized enterprise infrastructure.
“If ever there was a clear-cut case of defamation, that is it. Counting on discredited falsehoods initially offered by a self-proclaimed non secular medium and so-called investigative journalist, Ms. Owens each promoted and expanded on these falsehoods and invented new ones, all designed to trigger most hurt to the Macrons and maximize consideration and monetary acquire for herself,” a spokesperson for Clare Locke advised Fortune in an announcement. These claims are additionally mirrored within the grievance in opposition to Owens.
“Regardless of the irrefutable proof that was supplied to her on a number of events, she not solely continued however doubled down on her assaults. To make issues worse, many others have republished her lies, thereby growing their world viewers and the emotional and reputational hurt they’ve precipitated. It’s clear that for Ms. Owens fact is irrelevant. This lawsuit is about bringing that fact to mild and searching for justice for the Macrons by holding Ms. Owens to account. We’re assured that the details are on our facet and look ahead to proving her legal responsibility in courtroom,” the agency mentioned.
Owens didn’t reply to repeated Fortune requests for remark.
Hundreds of thousands on the road
Fortune studied public enterprise information of Owens’ enterprise holdings, researched the podcast financial system, and spoke to authorized and media specialists to develop perception into what Owens stands to lose in her authorized battle.
Understanding what’s at stake begins with the scope and construction of her enterprise empire. Her model sits squarely contained in the booming conservative unbiased media market, which has exploded over the previous 5 years. The size of that financial system helps clarify how Owens has collected substantial wealth via her media ventures.
The conservative media and influencer ecosystem has change into one of the profitable corners of the creator financial system, characterised by substantial promoting charges, distinctive monetization methods, and income potential that usually surpasses mainstream influencer markets. The Day by day Wire—Owens’ former employer, which can be thought-about a benchmark for the business—generated greater than $200 million in income in 2023, with comparable estimates for 2024. It has additionally grown right into a diversified media operation with greater than 1 million paid subscribers to its streaming service, DailyWire+, and pulled in $22 million from e-commerce alone that 12 months.
Advertisers have adopted the conservative media urge for food and cash. The highest 10 advertisers working solely with conservative podcasts at the moment are spending a mixed $5 million per 30 days—almost 4 occasions their common month-to-month spend in 2023, a November evaluation from Bloombergdiscovered. Promoting charges for the highest conservative podcasts, specialists advised Bloomberg, vary from $10,000 to greater than $100,000 per advert learn. Against this, left-leaning podcasts with sizable YouTube audiences—like MeidasTouch (5.5 million subscribers), The Majority Report, and The Bulwark (beneath 2 million)—sometimes safe only some thousand {dollars} per advert slot.
The manufacturers fueling this surge, from Birch Gold Group (which spent roughly $10.8 million on conservative podcast adverts over the previous 12 months) to PreBorn (an anti-abortion group that spent $13.1 million since 2023), view conservative hosts as indispensable advertising and marketing channels. Many of those corporations lack mainstream promoting avenues; their buyer base lives inside this ecosystem.
“It’s the golden age of political content material creation proper now,” Howard Polskin, president of TheRighting, which experiences on conservative media, advised Fortune. He pointed to the power of unbiased right-wing content material creators to earn tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} via solo ventures, rivaling the income being generated by mainstream media opponents like NewsMax which reported $43.3 million in income final quarter.
“The chilly, exhausting actuality is that proper wing media generates hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and has roughly half the nation beneath its spell,” Polskin added. This energy can show extraordinarily profitable for the ability gamers out there. George Farmer, Owens’ husband, advised Bloomberg that advertisers on her present allegedly reported seeing returns of two-to-one on {dollars} spent, and as much as five-to-one in some instances.
PAUL AIKEN—Digital First Media/Boulder Day by day Digital camera/Getty Pictures
Proper-leaning podcasts might command considerably increased advert charges as a result of they’ve amassed bigger and extra engaged followings than their left-leaning counterparts, as a 2025 report from Media Issues discovered. But additionally, these audiences could also be extra possible to purchase from ideologically pushed manufacturers, yielding higher returns for advertisers. Following former president Joe Biden’s election, Republicans more and more flocked to politically aligned merchandise, a 2024 Columbia Enterprise College examine discovered.
Proper-wing manufacturers pay notably excessive CPMs (value per thousand impressions: a metric for internet advertising that measures the fee to show an advert 1,000 occasions)—charges liberal creators don’t obtain, in response to Bloomberg. For exhibits with greater than 100,000 downloads per episode, mid-roll adverts sometimes fetch CPMs of $25 to $50, equating to $2,500 to $5,000 per advert, knowledge from digital advertising and marketing agency Design Rush discovered. At Owens’ peak quantity of roughly 3.5 million downloads per episode, even conservative CPM estimates put a single sponsorship learn at $50,000 to $175,000—and she or he runs a number of sponsors per present.
For Owens, this creates a direct monetary incentive: the extra provocative the content material, the upper the viewers engagement, the upper the advert charges. Conspiratorial and provocative content material “blows up as a result of individuals need to go deep and ‘uncover’ hidden truths and be part of the investigation. That’s what Candace is doing, and that’s what she was doing with the Macron claims,” Angelo Carusone, president and chairman of left-leaning media watchdog group Media Issues, advised Fortune. Put merely: Controversy drives views, views drive sponsors, and sponsors fund her whole operation.
Controversy as a enterprise mannequin
Earlier than the Macrons filed their defamation swimsuit, Owens had quietly constructed one of the profitable unbiased media machines in conservative politics. After a contentious break up from Ben Shapiro’s Day by day Wire in March 2024, allegedly sparked by a slew of on-air antisemitic feedback and staunch criticism of Israel, she launched a solo enterprise that shortly scaled right into a multimedia operation.
The Day by day Wire didn’t reply to a Fortune request for remark. Owens has beforehand characterised her firing from the media enterprise as a matter of precept the place she offered herself as a truth-teller who refused to bow to institutional stress and later accused the Day by day Wire of launching a “smear marketing campaign” in opposition to her.
Owens’ star energy lies in her dynamism. The once-Democrat based the “BLEXIT” motion (a marketing campaign for Black voters to embrace conservatism and depart the social gathering), and is what Carusone calls a “proficient storyteller.” She can be considerably of a Renaissance girl. “She is interesting to a section and satisfying a requirement proper now which is you can be a contemporary girl and a mother, but additionally embrace conventional roles and ask hard-hitting questions and never be shot down for it,” he mentioned.
Her digital footprint is huge. In line with left-leaning media watchdog group Media Issues, her follower and subscriber base grew by greater than 9 million throughout platforms this 12 months alone. Her self-titled podcast Candace, which debuted in June 2024, grew to become a breakout hit: in October 2025, it ranked No. 1 globally throughout platforms in downloads and views per episode, averaging 3.5 to three.6 million downloads per present, a report from podcast analytics platform Podscribe discovered.
Whereas she sits at No. 28 within the U.S. by weekly listener attain—behind giants like The Joe Rogan Expertise and Crime Junkie—her per-episode efficiency is phenomenal. Her YouTube channel has 5.58 million subscribers and greater than 1.1 billion whole views, frequently drawing 500,000 to 2 million views per video. This 12 months alone, it has amassed greater than 617 million views. Third-party analytics by content material creation perception platform VidIQ estimate the channel generates between $118,000 and $353,000 per 30 days in income alone—probably $1.4 million to $4.2 million yearly earlier than prices.
Throughout social platforms, Owens holds an extra 6.9 to 7 million followers on X (previously Twitter) and greater than 5 million on Instagram, giving her a mixed social media attain exceeding 10 million. That viewers dimension places her in league with main tv personalities—and offers her distribution energy rivaling conventional media retailers. ABC’s Good Morning America, for comparability, attracts solely a median of two.59 million viewers per episode, in response to Nielsen.
Her podcast is the monetary engine. In line with Bloomberg, Owens’ present had the best advert density amongst eight main conservative broadcasters studied—greater than 90% of episodes include host-read adverts. She has roughly 60 sponsors in rotation, that includes the marquee names of the conservative advertiser universe: PreBorn; Birch Gold Group; The Wellness Firm, which promotes ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as pandemic-preparedness medicines; Seven Weeks Espresso, which donates 10% of purchases to disaster being pregnant facilities; and PureTalk, a conservative mobile service.
Her husband, who oversees a lot of the enterprise, advised Bloomberg that just one advertiser, he claimed, has pulled out previously 12 months.
Talking charges add one other profitable earnings stream: Owens instructions $50,000 to $100,000 for in-person appearances and $10,000 to $20,000 for digital occasions. Merchandise gross sales and e-book royalties contribute extra income. Taken collectively—and on condition that podcast sponsorships alone might generate $2 million to $10 million yearly relying on quantity and charges—reasonable estimates place Owens’ whole yearly earnings within the low- to mid-single-digit hundreds of thousands. Actual figures, nevertheless, stay personal.
A household enterprise
Structurally, Owens runs her enterprise via two Delaware-registered entities: Candace Owens LLC, which manages her social accounts, and GeorgeTom, Inc., which produces her podcast. She employs fewer than 20 individuals, in response to Delaware enterprise filings reviewed by Fortune, although the precise variety of workers isn’t disclosed, Owens’ husband is a key participant in her operation.
Farmer, the son of Lord Michael Farmer, a British metals dealer nicknamed “Mr. Copper” who based the Crimson Kite Group hedge fund, grew up in aristocratic wealth. His father’s web value is estimated to exceed $190 million.
Farmer served as CEO of Parler, the conservative social media platform, from 2021 till stepping down in April 2023 after a turbulent tenure that included a failed acquisition try by Kanye West. He’s additionally a shareholder and director of GB Information, the Fox-imitating British broadcaster that has acquired over $90 million in funding from backers together with hedge-fund tycoon Paul Marshall.
DYLAN HOLLINGSWORTH—Bloomberg/Getty Pictures
The Macron grievance alleges Farmer is linked to GeorgeTom, Inc., the Delaware company working Owens’ web site and podcast. Whereas possession percentages aren’t disclosed, the household companies seem like intertwined—and so, probably, are the property. Owens herself has been considerably upfront about Farmer’s position in her enterprise, particularly because it pertains to his tasks.
“She has actually been pretty agency in that she doesn’t contact the enterprise, she doesn’t take into consideration the enterprise and mechanics. She actually depends on George Farmer,” Carusone advised Fortune. As a substitute, he mentioned, her focus is on being the expertise and nexus of the Candace model.
This disconnectedness, Carusone mentioned, might contribute to her seeming disregard for libel fits. “No matter she’s achieved structurally, she doesn’t appear terribly involved about her whole life falling aside,” he added.
Farmer’s work expertise is probably going the driving drive of this ease and will show to be a saving grace for Owens.
“The genesis of Parler was that it was imagined to be a social media place that was not going to be inclined to the varieties of financial, monetary, and social pressures that the elites, the tech corporations, the liberals, have been placing onto tech on the time,” he advised Fortune. “That have, there was a recognition internally that they wanted to do one thing, or they needed to do one thing that was going to be that will permit them to function unabated by conventional, typical market forces. And clearly that unraveled in a number of methods, however I don’t assume it might be surprising to me if classes integrated from that didn’t issue into no matter Farmer and Owens are doing now to insulate themselves from, from sure varieties of civil accountability.”
Whereas the precise strategies via which Owens and Farmer might have protected their property stay unknown, Carusone prompt that one possibility out there to the pair might be to arrange a community of trusts to insulate their funds.
The Owens calculus
The lawsuit itself presents its personal set of challenges for each the Macrons and Owens. However current judgments, together with the $1.4 billion in damages levied in opposition to fellow right-wing character Alex Jones who promoted conspiracy theories concerning the Sandy Hook bloodbath, reveal a willingness of juries to carry unbiased media personalities accountable with substantial monetary penalties for his or her actions. Likewise, in 2016, a Florida jury bankrupted the unique Gawker weblog with a $140 million judgment for invading the privateness of the late wrestler Hulk Hogan.
Jones’ representatives didn’t reply to a Fortune request for remark.
The most important hurdle the Macrons face is that they have to show that Owens made her statements concerning the French first girl with “precise malice,” Sonja West, first modification professional and regulation professor on the College of Georgia, advised Fortune. Which means they must present that Owens both knew what she was saying was false or acted with reckless disregard as as to if her statements have been false.
“However even when Owens can present that she believed her statements have been true when she first made them, the truth that she has continued to repeat them, even after the Macrons pushed again with potential proof displaying their falsity, might weaken her protection,” West mentioned. “Though now we have broad protections in opposition to defamation lawsuits by public figures, the Supreme Court docket has mentioned that we don’t have a First Modification proper to intentionally ignore proof that contradicts our claims.”
If Owens have been to lose, West defined, she has hundreds of thousands on the road in authorized charges alone. Within the case of Alex Jones, a Florida decide estimated the authorized charges and courtroom prices for the Sandy Hook households to be $320 million. When it comes to damages, she mentioned the quantity would rely upon a number of components: the concrete hurt the Macrons can show (corresponding to misplaced enterprise alternatives or talking charges), the scope and attain of her statements, and what number of occasions she repeated them.
“On condition that she had no proof, as a result of there was no proof, it’s simple to see how the plaintiffs will be capable to show precise malice, after which that opens the potential of getting not simply presumed damages, however punitive damages,” Lyrissa Lidsky, First Modification regulation specialist and professor on the College of Florida regulation college, advised Fortune. “So the query is, are juries bored with media irresponsibility in a method that may make them need to ship a message?”
It seems, nevertheless, Owens isn’t afraid of the potential penalties. She has requested her followers to donate to her authorized fund, estimating her courtroom battle will run her $5 million, whereas she continues to unfold claims concerning the Macrons. Prior to now week alone, she has accused the Macrons of funding a $1.5 million assassination plot in opposition to her to be carried out by France’s Nationwide Gendarmerie Intervention Group—claims she says she has reported to the White Home and FBI. Authorities from the Nationwide Gendarmerie Intervention Group advised French media these allegations have been false, stating that their operations give attention to counter-terrorism, combating crime and hostage restoration.
“Simply since you’ve been irresponsible in your speech previously doesn’t imply that now we have judicial orders saying you’ll be able to’t converse sooner or later,” she defined.
In spite of everything, Jones continues to be in enterprise regardless of declaring chapter, suggesting that even probably the most staggering monetary penalties can’t derail the economics of right-wing media.
And the trial itself will possible usher in substantial income for Owens from the controversy alone by driving engagement via viewership together with her varied monetized media channels. Due to this, Carusone believes the conservative on-line character might even come out on high, even when she loses the lawsuit.
