French President Emmanuel Macron is seen in a viral video showing his wife, Brigitte, pushing his face as they disembarked from their plane in Vietnam. The footage, captured by The Associated Press, shows Brigitte reaching out from the plane's doorway and pushing Macron's face with both hands. He appears momentarily surprised but quickly recovers and waves to the press.
Initially, Macron's office denied the authenticity of the images, but later downplayed the incident, describing it as a moment of joking and decompressing before the start of their Southeast Asian tour. He told reporters that the couple were simply horsing around and that the incident was being overblown into a "geo-planetary catastrophe"
"We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife. It’s nothing," Macron said. He also claimed that the incident was being used to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories.
However, a body language expert, Judi James, suggested that Macron's tightly closed fist after the incident indicated he was "angry and tense," contradicting the official narrative of a playful moment.
The incident occurred at the start of Macron's visit to Vietnam, the first by a French president in almost a decade.
Emmanuel, 47, and Brigitte Macron, 72, have been married since 2007, after meeting when he was reportedly a 15-year-old student and Brigitte was a teacher at his high school, a strange relationship which has been under scrutiny by French journalists and popular American commentator Candace Owens who believe that Brigitte is a biological male.
The Vietnam trip aims to promote France's influence in its former colony and comes amid economic and geopolitical tensions. During the visit both countries includes signed agreements on defense, nuclear power, and trade, including a deal for 20 Airbus planes with the Vietnamese budget airline company VietJet.
