Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Vietnam began with a shocking moment caught on camera.
The incident left the French President scrambling for an explanation.
And Emmanuel Macron got a nasty surprise from his wife that left diplomats stunned.
French President Macron slapped by his wife on diplomatic trip
The French President found himself in an embarrassing situation as he arrived in Vietnam for a diplomatic visit this weekend.
Video footage captured a startling moment between President Macron and his wife Brigitte that immediately went viral on social media.
On Sunday, as the presidential couple prepared to exit their plane in Hanoi, cameras caught the 72-year-old First Lady delivering what appeared to be a forceful, two-handed shove to her 47-year-old husband’s face.
The footage clearly shows the door to the plane open with Macron partially visible, seemingly engaged in conversation with someone off-camera.
Without warning, Brigitte’s hands suddenly connected with her husband’s mouth in what looked like an aggressive push to his face.
Macron, visibly startled by what had just occurred, seemed to realize the cameras had captured the awkward moment. He quickly offered a small wave before stepping out of the doorway’s view.
When the couple finally emerged to greet waiting Vietnamese officials, the tension was palpable. Brigitte appeared to ignore her husband as he extended his arm to escort her down the stairs.
MACRON GETS SMACKED IN THE FACE IN FRONT OF THE MEDIA. HIS REACTION🤣 pic.twitter.com/g58zWA02Lq
— LancesEpicQuest (@Stylzbeats) May 26, 2025
Macron’s office goes into damage control mode
The French president’s team immediately went into crisis management mode as the video spread across the internet.
According to the New York Post, Macron’s office initially questioned the authenticity of the video altogether, suggesting it might not be genuine.
When that approach failed, they quickly changed tactics, admitting the footage was real but claiming the incident was nothing more than playful banter between the couple.
“Everyone needs to calm down,” Macron told reporters, attempting to downplay the situation.
The French president tried to frame the incident as innocent teasing that had been blown out of proportion.
“There’s a video showing me joking and teasing my wife and somehow that becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe, with people even coming up with theories to explain it. We are horsing around and, really, joking with my wife,” Macron explained.
An insider from Macron’s team reinforced this narrative, describing the slap as nothing more than the couple “decompressing” before their official duties began.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by joking around,” a source close to the president told the media.
The source went further, dismissing public reaction as overblown and even suggesting that “conspiracy theorists” and “pro-Russian disinformation accounts” were responsible for mischaracterizing the incident.
“It’s a moment of togetherness. No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists,” the source added.
The controversial relationship between Macron and his wife
This incident has once again drawn attention to the unusual relationship between Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron.
Their relationship began when Macron was just 15 years old and Brigitte was his 40-year-old married teacher with three children.
Brigitte eventually divorced her husband to pursue a relationship with Macron, marrying him in 2007.
While the couple has maintained that nothing inappropriate occurred during Macron’s teenage years, their relationship has remained a source of public fascination and controversy.
The Southeast Asia trip was meant to strengthen France’s diplomatic and economic ties in the region, but the viral slap now threatens to overshadow any substantive outcomes from the visit.
Whether the incident was truly just playful banter as Macron claims or something more serious, it has created an unwelcome distraction for the French president at a time when he hoped to focus on international relations.
The latest incident comes on the heels of two over recent viral clips of Macron in strange situations.
First he appeared rather nervous about some objects on the table during a train ride to visit Ukraine’s president.
This clip of Macron grabbing something off the table and hiding it is making the rounds today, with many saying it’s a bag of cocaine he’s hiding.
What it looks like to me is an image conscious politician removing a used tissue from the table before photographs are taken. pic.twitter.com/QdrQhK3qtA
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) May 11, 2025
Then, there was the moment with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in which Macron seemingly couldn’t pull his finger from Erdoğan’s grip.
Why does Macron love to stick his fingers everywhere? Who knows—maybe he just can’t help himself. Either way, Erdoğan just gave him a taste of his own game. pic.twitter.com/bOXUlyt8DW
— Vladcoin (@runews) May 17, 2025
And of course, Trump has owned Macron with a series of dominating handshakes in recent years.
President Trump manhandles French President Emmanuel Macron with one of the most dominating handshakes I’ve ever seen
We are so back
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) December 7, 2024
🇺🇸🇫🇷 Trump just owned Emmanuel Macron again with another power handshake.
Trump knows all about Macron. pic.twitter.com/iU6CfPwh7q
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) February 24, 2025
OH MY GOSH! President Trump almost yanked Emmanuel Macron’s hand off for the third time today 😂
Everything he does is calculated. pic.twitter.com/x2lpMWFlBr
— George (@BehizyTweets) December 7, 2024
These awkward moments add to a growing list of public relations challenges for Macron, whose approval ratings have suffered in recent years amid economic difficulties and political unrest in France.