Whoopi Goldberg sparks uproar with her divisive take on Emmanuel Macron being 'shoved' by wife Brigitte
Whoopi Goldberg has sparked uproar from fans of The View after she claimed that French president Emmanuel Macron 's wife Bridgette was simply 'reaching' for his face rather than shoving him.
On Sunday evening, a shocking video emerged of Brigitte, 72, appearing to show her pushing her husband's face away as their plane touched down in Vietnam. In the clip, she places both hands on her husband's face and gives it a shove.
Macon, 47, has since dismissed claims that they were having an altercation and instead said they were simply 'joking around.'
The View host Whoopi, 69, had strong feelings about the viral moment on Tuesday's episode of talk show and while she said she found the footage 'hard to watch,' she argued that Brigitte was simply 'reaching' for Macron's face.
She also added that she finds the press attention 'intrusive' and 'uncomfortable.'
'I'm sorry, what I saw – and maybe I'm crazy - but I saw someone doing this,' Whoopi said, attempting to reenact the moment with Sara Haines. 'Come here, let me move you.'
'I did not see that,' Sara, 47, retorted. 'I saw embarrassment.'
'That's what I saw,' Whoopi maintained. 'Reaching for his face.'
She continued: 'This kind of stuff bothers me because people make decisions about stuff they don't know anything about.
'Because having been on the other side of this, I find it intrusive and because no one ever says, "well, what happened?"
'And when you say this is what happened, we were fooling around and whatever, people don't take you at your word and so for me, I find it uncomfortable.'
Whoopi added: 'It doesn't help because it's our scrutiny, but it's hundreds of magazines around the world. It's hundreds of TV stations, and, you know, it comes up all the time.
'Just the fact that they have a difference in their relationship is something that people hold on to. I find it's hard for me to watch. It's hard for me to do it but that's just me.'
Whoopi's fellow panelists felt uneasy about Bridgette's exchange with Macon and called into question their age gap relationship and power dynamics.
Sara commented: 'What happened after this exchange he offers her his hand and she doesn't take it.
'So, the joking narrative is sweet, I mean, we won't ever know what's going on here.'
Whoopi, however, interjected, to add: 'I can tell you why she doesn't want to take his hand. Because she doesn't want you to think she can't come down the stairs.
'We just got through saying how much older she is than he is.'
Alyssa said that if the roles were reversed, she would be saying the footage was 'inappropriate.'
She began: 'With due respect to our French allies and I have met Emmanuel Macron, they have an odd relationship.
'He was a student, she was a teacher. I don't think it would fly in America or get a lot more scrutiny how it came about but seem to have had a healthy marriage as far as I can see to date.'
Alyssa continued: 'I will give them the benefit of the doubt but if the roles were reversed and saw a man come for a woman's face like that I would be at the front of the line picketing saying it's inappropriate.'
Viewers were transfixed by Whoopi's remarks and argued that she was wrong.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, one said: 'Sorry Whoopi, but NO! The Macrons have a very weird relationship.'
'Whoopi fix those glasses, everybody knows what they saw,' another said. 'She hit that man and she didn't wanna take that man's hand, that didn't have anything to do with her being old. You probably needed to hold that rail coming down the stairs.'
'Whoopi STOP that was not fooling around or playing and that's not why she didn't take his hand lol they're human and got caught in a human moment, not a good look!' a third continued.
'Sorry Whoopi but cameras and scrutiny come with celeb/political life.'
'They were not fooling around! If they were she would have taken his arm!' added another.
A fifth said: 'Sorry #Whoopi but #French president #EmmanuelMacron and his wife don't look playful in the least.'
Macron addressed the uncomfortable scenes and has hit back at any theories.
'My wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise,' he told reporters in Vietnam.
Now it has 'become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories.
'For three weeks, there have been people who have watched videos and who think that I shared a bag of cocaine, that I had a mano-a-mano with a Turkish president and now that I am having a domestic dispute with my wife.
'In these three videos, I took a tissue, shook someone's hand and just joked with my wife, as we do quite often. Nothing more.'
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