French President Emmanuel Macron has downplayed an incident in which it appears that his wife struck him in the face.
After landing in Vietnam for a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia, France’s first lady Brigitte Macron is depicted in viral social media clips pressing her hands onto her husband’s mouth.
The president then observes the plane’s unlocked door and complies with the cameras by smiling and waving. Additionally, Macron appeared to extend his arm to the first lady as they descended the stairs from their aircraft at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi. However, she declined the offer.
The couple, who have been married since 2007, were the subject of a frenzy of debate regarding the existence of issues between them following the incident.
Nevertheless, Macron promptly provided an explanation, asserting to reporters in Hanoi that he and his wife were merely “horsing around,” according to the Associated Press. The French president further stated that the incident was being exaggerated in order to create “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.”
Macron further stated, “It is imperative that everyone maintains composure.”
Macron’s office also released a statement that minimised the incident, claiming that the two were “decompressing one final time before the start of the trip by horsing around” and that this was “all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists.”
It is not the first time that the French president’s staff has hastily dispelled rumours that have been disseminated online.
On May 11, the Élysée Palace, the official domicile of the French leader, released a formal statement on X to refute a conspiracy theory that suggested Macron was consuming cocaine during his meetings with other world leaders.
The claims were disseminated through a video that purported to depict Macron’s attempt to covertly remove a container of white powder from view while travelling to Ukraine on a night train with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as per conspiracy theorists.
Nevertheless, Macron was actually removing a white tissue paper that was soiled from the table in a hurry.
For years, France’s first lady has also been the target of malevolent false claims that she is a transgender woman and was born a man, which have been propagated by the far-right and MAGA.
The French president and his wife have been embroiled in controversy and intrigue for years. Their initial encounter occurred when he was 15 years old, and she was his married 39-year-old drama teacher.
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