What is the test for intentional publication of a false statement of fact?

Defamation is similar to invasion of privacy false light. Defamation is an invasion of the interest in reputation. (Burrill v. Nair (2013) 217 Cal.App.4th 357, 382, disapproved on other grounds in Baral v. Schnitt (2016) 1 Cal.5th 376, 396, fn. 11.) The tort requires the intentional publication of a false statement of fact that has a natural tendency to injure plaintiff's reputation or that causes special damage. (Burill, at p. 382.) Here, plaintiff alleges defendants secretly orally disseminated the statements to the general public including their students, knowing full well the statements did not come from plaintiff, and they intended to disseminate a message that plaintiff's family is defective as there is no male figure as a nucleus of the family, thus rendering her son a defective child. We question how a secret transmission to the general public might occur. Nevertheless, glaringly absent from plaintiff's pleadings is any contention the statements of fact are false, a required element for defamation. Even if the statements of fact are false, however, we conclude the statements do not have a natural tendency to injure plaintiff's reputation. Plaintiff cannot succeed on this claim.