Former Daily Wire host Candace Owens claimed someone was attempting to smear her character by "planting a story" about allegations made by former colleagues.
Owens discussed the situation in an X livestream on Wednesday evening, saying she had tried to take the high road over the last couple months, though added recent controversy surrounding her departure from The Daily Wire had "crossed into another territory."
"A couple of days ago, my PR person received a tip from someone that a Daily Mail journalist, who I had never heard of, was asking weird questions about me," she said, surmising the journalist in question was likely writing a hit piece on her. "I want to be clear here: I do not blame the journalist. I don't blame The Daily Mail."
Owens noted she previously wrote op-eds for, and was a frequent reader of, the outlet.
"I understand that when somebody is leaking stories, and claiming to have an inside track, or some inside knowledge about someone, it is tempting for a journalist to get involved," she said. "But to this level ... I've just never seen anything more fictitious and made up, and someone that is going to publish something, or thinks that they have a story here when everything that they have learned has been wrong."
Owens then began reading an email from the Daily Mail reporter requesting information on Owens. Enough is enough… https://t.co/cODx1YnhQI
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 30, 2024
"I am currently writing a story focused on how Candace Owens came to leave The Daily Wire," the email reads, per Owens. "Any response, either in an official statement or from sources close to Candace on the following information would be greatly appreciated."
The email claimed Owens' "dismissal" from The Daily Wire stemmed from "financial" struggles within the outlet.
"Her show just wasn't making the company enough money to justify continuing her employment," the email continues, further claiming Owens blamed Daily Wire producers and allegedly refused to work with some advertisers. "We have also heard that senior management had a moral obligation to terminate Candace's employment, due to what has been described as her increased antisemitism, and her conspiracy theories."
The Daily Mail reporter's email also noted others claimed Owens was "mean" and "mistreated" junior Daily Wire staff members, including makeup artists and interns. According to one of the claims, Owens also allegedly threw a canned drink at one of The Daily Wire's staff members.
"I am now throwing canned drinks at employees, mean to junior employees, yelling at the makeup artists," Owens said before returning to the email, which asked for Owens' response to accusations of homophobia and antisemitism, particularly across the former Daily Wire personalities social media accounts. "The attacks on over me not backing down on being a Christian are failing, so now we're just moving to full on mischaracterizations."
Owens noted she had worked in politics for eight years, saying she welcomed anyone who felt she had mistreated them to come forward.
"I am the exact opposite human being. This is the most absurd thing that I've ever read in my entire life." she continued. "The idea that I threw a canned drink at someone, and it was fine, and it just flew, like that employee didn't have a lawsuit ... it is literally just invented in someone's head as part of a character attack on me."
Owens said she was "unbelievably close" to her former Daily Wire team and still spoke with her former colleagues. Owens also noted her makeup artist, Evelyn, had left the outlet along with her and was working with Owens on her upcoming show. Owens said she discussed the allegations within The Daily Mail reporter's email with a former Daily Wire producer, to which the producer said nobody had contacted her about the claims.
"Who is planting the story?" Owens asked. "I am not going to speculate because I don't need to speculate. I think everybody can see clearly what is happening here. Everybody knows what is going on here, and we're getting to the point where this is just tortious interference."
The former Daily Wire personality continued: "This is basically like, I want to make it so nobody will work with you, and since I know that Candace is really a hard worker, and I know that people actually love her ... we're gonna pretend that it's the opposite so that other people who might want to work with her go, 'Maybe not. She's like throwing canned drinks at people,'" she continued. "That is the actual phase that we are at now, and the absolute desperation to defame me, and to tarnish my name for the simple fact that I won't be apologizing for saying 'Christ is King.'"
Owens said she responded to the email, providing proof and contacts to refute the claims before reiterating nobody from her team at The Daily Wire had been contacted regarding the story's allegations.
"Who do you guys think is leaking this story, suggesting that I would ever mistreat an employee ever," she said. "It's not in my DNA, okay? You guys know I'm my granddad's girl. ... I would rather die ... than treat somebody badly."
Owens said upon her show's return in the upcoming weeks, she would "breathe some fire like a dragon."
In a follow-up X post, Owens listed a series of personalities in the conservative and alternative media sphere whom she had previously worked with, and invited any of them to speak out about her character regarding the allegations.
"It is such disrespect to the legacy of my grandfather and every small job he had to ever suggest that I would ever treat an employee badly because of their rank," Owens wrote.
