France’s first woman seems to push her husband on a aircraft. Macron says they had been joking

[ad_1] PARIS (AP) — They had been simply playfighting.

That was French President Emmanuel Macron’s rationalization Monday for video photos that confirmed present his spouse, Brigitte, pushing her husband away with each palms on his face earlier than they disembarked from their aircraft to start out a tour of Southeast Asia this weekend.

The second shortly made headlines in France, with media making an attempt to decipher the interplay that cameras noticed by means of the just-opened door of the aircraft. The headline of a narrative on the web site of the day by day Le Parisien newspaper requested: “Slap or ‘squabble’? The pictures of Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron disembarking in Vietnam set off plenty of remark.”

Macron later instructed reporters that the couple — married since 2007 after assembly at the highschool the place he was a scholar and she or he was a trainer — had been merely joking round.

READ MORE: France and Britain mull plans to deploy troops to assist with Ukraine-Russia peace deal

“We're squabbling and, reasonably, joking with my spouse,” he mentioned, including that the incident was being overblown into “a kind of geo-planetary disaster.”

In video taken by The Related Press because the Macrons arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, a uniformed man may be seen pulling open the aircraft door and revealing the president standing inside, wearing a go well with and speaking to somebody who wasn’t seen.

<img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-520472" src="https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/05/2025-05-26T144145Z_482051054_RC2QPEAQWJPC_RTRMADP_3_VIETNAM-FRANCE-MACRON-WIFE-MOMENT-ROUGH-CUT-1024x685.jpg" alt="Macron's face appears to be shoved by wife in Vietnam" width="1024" height="685" class="size-large wp-image-520472" srcset="https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/05/2025-05-26T144145Z_482051054_RC2QPEAQWJPC_RTRMADP_3_VIETNAM-FRANCE-MACRON-WIFE-MOMENT-ROUGH-CUT-1024x685.jpg 1024w, https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/05/2025-05-26T144145Z_482051054_RC2QPEAQWJPC_RTRMADP_3_VIETNAM-FRANCE-MACRON-WIFE-MOMENT-ROUGH-CUT-300x201.jpg 300w, https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/05/2025-05-26T144145Z_482051054_RC2QPEAQWJPC_RTRMADP_3_VIETNAM-FRANCE-MACRON-WIFE-MOMENT-ROUGH-CUT-768x514.jpg 768w, https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/05/2025-05-26T144145Z_482051054_RC2QPEAQWJPC_RTRMADP_3_VIETNAM-FRANCE-MACRON-WIFE-MOMENT-ROUGH-CUT-425x284.jpg 425w, https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/05/2025-05-26T144145Z_482051054_RC2QPEAQWJPC_RTRMADP_3_VIETNAM-FRANCE-MACRON-WIFE-MOMENT-ROUGH-CUT-1200x803.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px"/> A mixture image reveals France’s President Emmanuel Macron being pushed within the face because the couple arrived in Vietnam to start a tour of Southeast Asia, at Noi Bai Worldwide Airport, in Hanoi on Might 25, 2025. Picture by Chalinee Thirasupa/ Reuters

Brigitte Macron’s arms — in crimson — had been seen reaching out and pushing Macron away, with one hand protecting his mouth and a part of his nostril whereas the opposite was on his jaw. The French chief recoiled, turning his head away. Then, apparently realizing that he was on digital camera, he broke right into a smile and gave a bit of wave.

In subsequent photos, Macron and his spouse, sporting a crimson jacket, appeared on the high of the steps. He supplied an arm however she didn’t take it. They walked down the carpeted stairs facet by facet.

The French chief argued that the photographs and response to them supplied a cautionary story about disinformation within the social media age, noting that in current weeks, different movies had been used to flow into made-up tales about him.

WATCH: Trump says ‘this is the right time’ to end Ukraine war in joint news conference with France’s Macron

“Everybody must settle down,” he mentioned.

His workplace additionally downplayed the interplay.

“It was a second the place the president and his spouse had been decompressing one final time earlier than the beginning of the journey by horsing round. It’s a second of complicity. It was all that was wanted to provide ammunition to the conspiracy theorists,” his workplace mentioned.

Brigitte Macron was Brigitte Auzière, a married mom of three youngsters, once they met at his highschool. A trainer, she supervised the drama membership the place Emmanuel Macron, a literature lover, was a member.

He moved to Paris for his final yr of highschool, however promised to marry Brigitte. She later moved to the French capital to hitch him and divorced earlier than they lastly married.