French President Emmanuel Macron was caught on camera appearing to be slapped—or at the very least shoved—by his wife Brigitte Macron as they stepped off their presidential plane in Vietnam.
The awkward encounter unfolded Sunday night and has since gone viral, and now the Elysee Palace is in full-blown damage control mode.
As the Macrons arrived for a high-stakes diplomatic visit aimed at rekindling French influence in Southeast Asia, President Macron was caught off guard before he could even wave to the cameras—his wife’s unexpected gesture made him recoil, visibly stunned, before he regained his composure and tried to play it off with a forced smile.
WATCH:
Macron’s ’wife’ gets caught slapping him …
Via @GBNEWS pic.twitter.com/3lplhYN9Do
— Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR (@EssexPR) May 26, 2025
The Elysee Palace wasted no time scrambling to spin the embarrassing footage, calling it nothing more than a “moment of closeness” and claiming the couple was simply “relaxing” and “playfully teasing each other” before starting the official trip.
Le Monde reported:
Macron’s office initially denied the authenticity of the images, before they were confirmed as genuine. A close associate of the president, cited anonymously by Agence France-Presse (AFP), later described the incident as a couple’s harmless “squabble.”
Another member of his entourage downplayed the significance of the incident. “It was a moment when the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by joking around,” the second source told reporters. “It’s a moment of togetherness. No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists,” the source added, blaming pro-Russian accounts for negative comments about the incident.
Vietnam is the first stop on Macron’s almost week-long tour of Southeast Asia, where he will pitch France as a reliable alternative to the United States and China. He will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.
