The first leg of French President Emmanuel Macron’s Southeast Asia tour got off to a dangerous trend s when he appeared to be slapped or pushed in the face by his wife, Brigitte.
As he was beginning to depart from a plane in Vietnam, a short clip shows the aircraft door opening with Macron appearing in the doorway. Just a few seconds later, Macron’s face can be seen being pushed by his wife in what appeared to be a sudden shove.
Initially stunned, Macron regained his composure and waved to the press waiting outside the aircraft. As the couple left the aircraft, Macron offered an arm to his wife, which she refused to accept, guiding her way down the steps with the railing instead.
Video of the incident quickly went viral on social media with a number of different videos racking up over one million views.
The Elysee initially denied the incident on the plane, before later moving to downplay its significance as a “moment of togetherness,” according to CNN.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were unwinding one last time before the trip began, playfully teasing each other,” a source told CNN Monday.
Speaking to reporters in Hanoi on Monday, Macron broke his silence on the incident and tried to downplay the video.
“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,” via CNN.
“The videos are all real, and yes, sometimes people tamper with them, but people are attributing all kinds of nonsense to them.”
