French President Emmanuel Macron has played down a viral incident in which his wife, Brigitte Macron, appears to push his face as they arrived in Vietnam for a diplomatic visit to Southeast Asia. The widely shared clips show Brigitte placing her hands over the president’s mouth just after they disembark from the plane. Macron then turns toward the open aircraft door, smiling and waving to the press.
The footage fueled speculation about possible tensions between the couple, who have been married since 2007. However, Macron quickly addressed the incident during a press briefing in Hanoi, explaining that he and his wife were simply joking around, according to the Associated Press.
Speaking to reporters in Hanoi on Monday, Macron directly responded to the footage and dismissed the speculation it had generated.
“There’s a video showing me joking and teasing my wife and somehow that becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe, with people even coming up with theories to explain it,” the president said per CNN.
Macron acknowledged that the footage was genuine but criticized the way it had been misused. He noted that while the videos were authentic, they were being distorted and misinterpreted, with people assigning unfounded meanings to them.
A brief video shows President Macron emerging from an aircraft doorway, followed moments later by Brigitte Macron reaching out and appearing to push his face in a sudden gesture. Macron looks briefly taken aback but quickly recovers and waves to the media.
As they descend the stairs, he offers his arm, which Brigitte declines, choosing instead to hold the railing. Initially, the Élysée denied the incident occurred, but later sought to minimize its importance.
According to a source close to the president, the couple were simply having a minor disagreement. An Élysée source described it as a “moment of togetherness.”
The relationship between the French president and his wife has long drawn public attention and stirred debate, largely because they first met when he was a 15-year-old student and she was a 39-year-old drama teacher, already married at the time. Despite a 24-year age difference and initial opposition from Emmanuel’s parents, the couple maintained their relationship and married in 2007 after Brigitte’s divorce from her first husband, with whom she has three children. As First Lady, Brigitte has taken an active role in French public life, focusing on education and social issues.
