The video, filmed in May 2024 as the Macrons prepared to disembark from a plane in Vietnam, shows Brigitte Macron pushing the president’s face away. It went viral last year, prompting speculation of a rift, according to sources. com.
Body language expert Judi James told the same outlet that the push should not be normalized as “fun,” describing it as a hard shove that made Macron’s head reel. Online reactions have been largely negative, ranging from accusations of domestic violence to mockery, according to reports. The Élysée initially dismissed the video as possibly AI-generated, according to local media reports, but later corrected this statement.
An Élysée official played down the incident, saying it was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing and having a laugh, according to sources. Macron later admitted the couple had been squabbling, calling it “squabbling, or rather joking,” and said the attention was surprising, according to reports. The couple denied a rift and insisted they were just joking, according to sources.
Macron and Brigitte later staged a united front in Jakarta, with Macron waving and laughing, to mock the media frenzy, according to sources cited by LADbible, including the Telegraph. The video was played on loop by French outlets briefly but then moved on, reflecting the cultural norm of privacy, according to reports. com that such personal stories are harder to contain now than 30 years ago, and the incident is deeply embarrassing for Macron.
In his book ‘A (Nearly) Perfect Couple,’ French journalist Florian Tardif, a political correspondent at Paris Match, claims the slap was sparked when Brigitte saw a message from Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani on Macron’s phone, according to reports. Tardif alleges that Mrs. Macron was fearful her husband might leave her for Farahani after seeing the text exchange, according to sources.
The content of the messages reportedly went “quite far” and included comments such as “I find you very pretty,” Tardif told RTL radio. Someone close to the couple told Tardif that Mrs. Macron read a message she was never meant to read, prompting a dispute longer and harsher than usual, according to reports.
An extract published in Paris Match states that what hurt Brigitte was not the content but the possibility hinted at by the message, according to sources. ” Tardif claims Macron maintained a “platonic” relationship with Farahani for a few months and sent her messages like “I find you very pretty,” according to reports. He says the messages caused tension and a significant argument aboard the presidential plane on the tarmac at Hanoi airport, according to sources.
Such personal stories are harder to contain now than 30 years ago, and the incident is deeply embarrassing for Macron.
Tardif also claims the Élysée regretted not being honest about the dispute because it could have shown they were a real couple, according to reports. A source close to Mrs. Macron categorically denied the claims when interviewed by Tardif in March, insisting she never looks into her husband’s phone, according to Le Parisien.
Tardif has insisted that everything in his book is facts, according to sources. He interviewed Mrs. Macron for the book, and she said she was very tired after a difficult flight and pushed her husband away when he tried to make her laugh, according to reports.
Farahani told Le Point that some people lack love and need to create romances to fill the void, according to sources. She has previously dismissed speculation about a relationship with Macron, saying it doesn’t bother her, in Gala magazine. The Independent has contacted representatives for Farahani and Mr.
and Mrs. Macron. French media traditionally protect politicians’ private lives, a norm that kept François Mitterrand’s illegitimate daughter hidden and led to silence around Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s womanizing, according to reports.
In 2014, Closer magazine published photos of François Hollande visiting actress Julie Gayet while still living with Valérie Trierweiler, but the media backed off after his office condemned the invasion of privacy, according to reports. The conflicting accounts leave key questions unanswered. What exactly did the text messages between Macron and Farahani say?
Did Brigitte Macron actually see the messages on her husband’s phone, and if so, how? What is the true nature of the relationship between Macron and Farahani? Why did the Élysée initially claim the video might be AI-generated, and what prompted the correction?
How reliable is Florian Tardif’s sourcing for the claims in his book?