Emmanuel Macron puts on a brave face walking arm-in-arm with Brigitte after his team tried to deny his wife shoved him and he played down 'squabble' by comparing it to 'crackpot' cocaine rumours
The French President last night sought to calm the furore triggered by a televised squabble with the First Lady by claiming they were just 'playfighting', while blaming disinformation campaigns for taking the video out of context.
The video in question showed Brigitte Macron giving her husband a two-handed shove in the face moments before they stepped off their presidential jet to be greeted by delegates in Hanoi on Sunday evening.
Today, the couple were seen arm in arm as the president arrived at Hanoi's University of Science and Technology to deliver a speech - a visit that came hours after Macron said 'crackpot' conspiracy theorists were working to intensify speculation around the state of his marriage.
He pointed out that he had recently been falsely accused of doing cocaine with fellow European leaders Sir Keir Starmer and Germany 's Friedrich Merz, and of having a physical altercation with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
But the rumour mill was sent into overdrive by Macron's office which first issued a statement claiming the video was an AI-generated fake, only to climb down hours later and admit the clip was genuine.
'My wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise,' Macron told reporters in Vietnam last night.
Now it has 'become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories,' he added.
'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,' Macron concluded.
'None of this is true… so everyone needs to calm down.'
The latest object of speculation was generated by the French First Lady on Sunday, moments after the French presidential jet touched down in Vietnam.
Shocking video of the incident shot by the Associated Press news agency in Hanoi showed the French President standing on his plane in an open doorway before making his way down the stairs.
He appeared to be in conversation with someone in the cabin who was obscured from view. That person was quickly revealed to be Brigitte Macron, who planted her hands on her husband's face and shoved him.
The president was startled but quickly realised he was in full view of TV cameras and turned to wave through the open plane door.
The couple then proceeded down the staircase for the official welcome by Vietnamese officials, though Mrs Macron did not take her husband's offered arm.
Macron's office initially denied the authenticity of the images, suggesting they had been AI-generated - but later pulled a U-turn and admitted they were genuine.
A close associate of the president later described the incident as a couple's harmless 'squabble'.
An Elysee official played down the moment, denying it showed an argument between the couple, who have been married since 2007: 'It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh.'
'It was a moment of closeness,' the official said.
Another member of his entourage played down 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.
The relationship between Macron, 47, and his 72-year-old wife has long been a subject of fascination at home and abroad.
She was a drama teacher and he a pupil when they met at a private school in their hometown of Amiens in northeast France. A mother of three children, Brigitte divorced her husband and began a relationship with Macron while he was in his late teens.
The president appeared startled after the shove but quickly recovered and turned to wave through the open door
Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer were recently at the centre of fake internet accusations that they were 'taking cocaine on a train journey to Ukraine'
The video clip circulated rapidly online, promoted particularly by accounts that are habitually hostile to the French leader.
Macron and his office went on to blame manipulations on 'networks that are quite well-traceable', specifically pointing the finger at 'the Russians' and 'the extremists in France'.
Meanwhile, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who had actively promoted the cocaine disinformation earlier this month, wrote on Telegram that Macron had received 'a right hook from his wife'.
She said Macron's advisers would try to explain away the gesture by blaming Russia. 'Maybe it was the 'hand of the Kremlin'?' she said, with heavy sarcasm.
Macron's visit to Vietnam, the first by a French president in almost a decade, comes as he aims to boost France's influence in its former colony.
Vietnam, which has a heavily export-driven economy, has made concessions to the US in trade talks in a bid to avoid 46% tariffs.
But Brussels has concerns that Vietnam's efforts to buy more American goods could come at Europe's expense.
US President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to impose 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union, but softened his stance two days later, restoring a July 9 deadline for talks between Washington and Brussels.
Vietnam is the first stop on an almost week-long tour of Southeast Asia for Macron where he will pitch France as a reliable alternative to the United States and China.
He will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.
Speaking on the first day of the tour today, Macron called for the preservation of a world order 'based on law'.
During a press statement alongside his Vietnamese counterpart Luong Cuong in Hanoi, Macron said a rules-based order was necessary at 'a time of both great imbalance and a return to power-driven rhetoric'.
Macron signed more than a dozen agreements on defense, nuclear power and trade, including one with the Vietnamese budget airline company VietJet and Airbus to buy 20 A330-900 planes.
He paid tribute at a Hanoi war memorial to those who fought the French colonial rulers and met with his counterpart Luong Cuong, as well as Communist Party general secretary To Lam.
Macron also visited the 11th century Temple of Literature in the heart of the Vietnamese capital.
The French President and First Lady are seen during the 'No to Bullying' award ceremony at the Elysee Palace last week
France and Vietnam's 'sovereignty partnership' could be the central axis of France's approach in the Indo-Pacific, Macron said.
France has demonstrated its 'desire to defend international maritime law' when it deployed the French carrier strike group in the South China Sea in early 2025, Macron said.
China and Vietnam have long had a maritime agreement governing the Gulf of Tonkin, but have been locked in competing claims in the South China Sea over the Spratly and Paracel Islands and maritime areas.
Macron said France would also support Vietnam in key sectors, including critical minerals, high-speed rail, civil nuclear energy and aerospace, and focus on partnering with the Asian nation to help it transition away from dirty coal power while adding new capacity in renewable energy and civil nuclear power.
This is Macron's first trip to Vietnam since he took office in 2017.
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