French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed a video showing his wife pushing him with both hands as a joke.
In the viral footage, first lady Brigitte Macron’s hands can be seen swatting the French president’s face away just moments before the couple disembarked from their plane in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The video, taken on Sunday, starts off showing a uniformed man opening the plane door, with the president standing directly behind him. President Macron can be seen talking with someone not visible to the camera.
Seconds later, two arms, donning red sleeves, reach into the camera’s view and hit Macron’s face. The French president can be seen recoiling and turning his face to the side, at which point he appears to notice the camera. The video shows the president breaking into a smile and waving.
The video later shows Macron and his wife, wearing a red jacket, descending from the plane’s stairs. The president appeared to offer his arm to the first lady, though she did not take it and opted to hold on to the railing.
The incident quickly made headlines, with some speculating that the first lady had slapped her husband.
The Élysée initially denied the incident but later called it a “moment of togetherness,” according to CNN.
One source close to the president told CNN affiliate BFM TV that the couple was playfully bickering.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were unwinding one last time before the trip began, playfully teasing each other,” the source reportedly said.
The president has since downplayed the incident, telling reporters on Monday that he and his wife were joking around.
“We are horsing around and, really, joking with my wife,” Macron said, insisting that the video was overblown.
“It becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe,” he said.
This is the second viral video this month Macron has been forced to address.
Two weeks ago, the president claimed France’s enemies were behind a “disinformation” campaign centered on a video of him grabbing something from a table during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The president and his office later posted screenshots of the video with a close-up of the object, saying it was a tissue.
MACRON RESPONDS TO ‘DISINFORMATION’ SPREAD BY VIRAL VIDEO
Macron and his wife have been married since 2007.
They first met at his high school, where he was a student and she worked as a teacher and supervised the drama club.
