LONDON — French President Emmanuel Macron played down an apparent spat with his wife Brigitte, after a video emerged of what appeared to be the French first lady shoving her husband in the face after they arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, for an official visit.
The video showed Macron appearing inside the door of his aircraft shortly after touching down in the northern Vietnamese city late on Sunday. A hand and arm — with the person not fully visible but dressed in red — could then be seen appearing to shove the president’s face from his right hand side.
Macron appeared startled but quickly turned to wave through the open door. Brigitte — wearing a red jacket — then appeared from the president’s right, with the couple then walking down the plane’s staircase together to the tarmac.
French President Emmanuel Macron stands near the door of a plane, as a hand appears and pushes his face away, in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 25, 2025, in this screengrab from a video.
Reuters Tv/via Reuters
“We are bickering and joking with my wife and a video becomes a sort of geoplanetary catastrophe,” Macron told reporters on Monday. “In the world we live in, we don’t have a lot of time to lose” on discussing such topics, he added.
Speaking on France’s BFMTV television channel, Macron denied any “domestic scene,” adding, “This is all a bit of nonsense.”
Macron is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour. He will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron pose for photos at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 26, 2025.
Nhac Nguyen/AP
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Hugo Leenhardt contributed to this report.
