French President Emmanuel Macron is caught on camera being ‘slapped’ by wife Brigitte during a tense moment as they arrived in Vietnam, sparking viral reactions and renewed conspiracy chatter.
French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron were caught in a bizarre and unexpected moment upon arrival in Vietnam, as footage surfaced showing the president allegedly being ‘slapped’ by his wife. Footage captured on Sunday evening at Hanoi airport shows the presidential plane door opening to reveal President Macron inside, facing Brigitte with a visibly stern expression. Within moments, Brigitte’s hands can be seen raised to Macron’s face in what appears to be a light slap.
Appearing stunned, the French leader quickly notices the doors are open and pivots to wave at the assembled media waiting at the foot of the staircase. The pair then emerge side by side, with Macron offering his arm to his wife — but she instead grabs the handrail, sparking speculation of a possible argument inside the aircraft.
The video, which went viral overnight, was initially dismissed as fake by the Palais de l'Élysée. However, according to reports in the French media the footage is real. A live feed by the Associated Press also captured the awkward exchange, leaving little room for denial.
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WATCH: Viral Video Of Macron ‘Slapped' By Wife
“Just Bickering,” Says Insider
According to an anonymous source close to the President who spoke to BFMTV, the couple were simply “bickering.”
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were unwinding one last time before the start of the trip by having a little fun,” the source told the outlet. They further claimed the moment was one of “complicity” that “wasn't enough to give the conspiracy theorists more to chew” — referencing ongoing Russian disinformation campaigns targeting the French leader.
Macron, who began a week-long tour of Southeast Asia with his Vietnam stop, has repeatedly been the subject of online conspiracy theories and deepfakes. The 46-year-old president was just 15 when he began a relationship with Brigitte, who was then his French literature teacher and a mother of three.
Long History of Online Attacks
In recent months, Macron has had to publicly dismiss a number of fabricated claims, including false rumours that his wife was born male — a story he condemned as a misogynistic attack — and a viral video suggesting he was in possession of cocaine while on a train to Kyiv with UK Labour leader Keir Starmer and Germany’s Friedrich Merz.
That clip, widely spread by pro-Russian accounts, showed a bag of white powder on the table. “Macron quickly pockets it, Merz hides the spoon. No explanation given,” one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote.
Russia’s foreign ministry even weighed in, with spokesperson Maria Zakharova posting on Telegram: “A Frenchman, an Englishman and a German” had been spotted with cocaine paraphernalia on a train. “The fate of Europe is being decided by utterly (drug) dependent individuals,” she wrote. “It’s as if the Almighty Himself is lifting the veil on this putrid spectacle.”
