Emmanuel Macron's Office Addresses Video of Wife Pushing Him in Face
Originally appeared on E! Online
thinks everyone is making a mountain out of a molehill.
After a video circulated in which the President of France appeared to be pushed in the face by his wife, Brigitte Macron, before exiting their plane on May 25, an official from the President's office set the record straight.
"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," the official said in a statement, according to Reuters, on May 26. 'It was a moment of closeness.'
The moment occurred after the President's plane landed on the tarmac in Hanoi, Vietnam, as Macron and his wife are set to begin a tour of Southeast Asia. In the video, Macron, 47, appeared in the plane's doorway before a hand reached out and pushed him in the face. Though the person could not be seen in the video, the arm was clad in a red jacket matching the blazer Brigitte, 72, was wearing as she and Macron descended the plane.
After the push, Macron smiled and waved at the cameras before moving out of sight momentarily. The couple—who tied the knot in 2007 and are parents to three children from Brigitte's previous marriage—then walked down the plane's stairs side by side a few moments later.
Macron's visit to Vietnam marks the first time a President of France has visited the country in almost a decade.
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When asked about the moment by reporters in Hanoi the next day, per The New York Times, Macron replied, 'I was bickering, or rather joking, with my wife,' noting it's something the pair 'often do.'
'I'm surprised by it, it turns into some kind of global catastrophe where people are even coming up with theories to explain it,' he added. 'It's nonsense.'
In his response to the incident on the plane, the President also cited two other recent events he said were then blown out of proportion. The first was a visit on May 14 with German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on a train in Ukraine. After a video of the trio appeared online, some users suggested a crumpled up tissue on the table in front of them was actually a bag of cocaine. (Élysée Palace issued a statement shortly after condemning the "fake news.")
When asked about the moment by reporters in Hanoi the next day, per The New York Times, Macron replied, 'I was bickering, or rather joking, with my wife,' noting it's something the pair 'often do.'
'I'm surprised by it, it turns into some kind of global catastrophe where people are even coming up with theories to explain it,' he added. 'It's nonsense.'
In his response to the incident on the plane, the President also cited two other recent events he said were then blown out of proportion. The first was a visit on May 14 with German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on a train in Ukraine. After a video of the trio appeared online, some users suggested a crumpled up tissue on the table in front of them was actually a bag of cocaine. (Élysée Palace issued a statement shortly after condemning the "fake news.")
The second was a recent video of a lingering handshake with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a meeting in Tirana, Albania.
'It's been three weeks — if you look at the international agenda of the president of the French Republic, from Kyiv to Tirana to Hanoi, there are people who have watched the videos and believe that I shared a bag of cocaine,' Macron added to reporters in Hanoi, 'that I had a 'mano a mano' with a Turkish president and that right now I'm having a fight with my wife. None of this is true.'
He noted, 'So everyone needs to calm down and focus on the real news.'
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