LAST UPDATE | 26 May

This is the moment French President Emmanuel Macron appears to be pushed in the face by his wife, Brigitte, as they arrive in Vietnam.
An Elysee official said "the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh". pic.twitter.com/JXXiUSJ8F5

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) May 26, 2025

EMMANUEL MACRON HAS downplayed a video that appears to show his wife, Brigitte, slapping or pushing him in the face as they arrived in Vietnam to kick off a Southeast Asia tour.

In the footage, the French president appears to be shoved in the face by Brigitte just before he stepped off the presidential plane yesterday.

Brigitte’s arms emerge from the left of the open doorway, she places both hands on her husband’s face, and gives it a shove. Macron appears startled, but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door.

The couple then descend the steps together.

A spokesperson for the president denied the moment reflected any tension between the pair: “It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh.”

The incident was dismissed as ‘horseplay’ by the French president. PA PA

Initially, Macron’s office denied the existence of the video but later acknowledged it, downplaying the incident as “playful teasing.”

“It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists,” Macron’s office said.

Macron later told reporters that the couple – married since 2007 after meeting at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher – were simply joking around.

 “We are horsing around and, really, joking with my wife,” he said, adding that the incident was being overblown: “It becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.”

The incident has sparked a frenzy across French media, as outlets tried to interpret the brief interaction caught through the just-opened plane door.

While Le Monde called it a “push”, Le Figaro questioned whether it was a “blow to the face”, and Le Parisien asked, “slap or squabble?”.

This is the third time this month that Macron has been the subject of viral video footage at a time when France says it is being targeted by repeated disinformation attacks as Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine.

Macron testily referred to the other incidents while addressing the incident with his wife, including the images shot on a train to Kyiv where some accounts falsely claimed he shared cocaine with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

But the object Macron removed from the table when the media entered was a tissue.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, was filmed holding the president’s finger at a summit.

“For three weeks… there are people who have watched videos and think I shared a bag of cocaine, that I had a fight with the Turkish president, and that now I’m having a domestic dispute with my wife,” said Macron.

“None of these are true,” he said.

“Everyone needs to calm down,” he added.

Referring to the past incidents, Macron said: “In these three videos I took a tissue, shook someone’s hand and just joked with my wife, as we do quite often. Nothing more.”

“We have loads of accounts, anonymous or not, whose frustrations are going to their heads, including news commentators who said this morning that I have the diplomacy of a beaten man,” he added.

He emphasised that all three videos were “completely authentic” but the meanings attached to them were not.

Macron’s visit to Vietnam, the first by a French president in nearly a decade, aims to strengthen ties with the south-east Asian nation amid growing trade tensions between the EU and the US.

Vietnam, with its export-driven economy, has made trade concessions to the US to avoid 46% tariffs.

However, there are concerns in the EU that Vietnam’s increased purchases of US goods could hurt European interests.

Recently, US President Donald Trump threatened 50% tariffs on EU imports but later eased his position, keeping the July 9 deadline for US-EU trade talks.

Additional reporting from PA and AFP