French president, Emmanuel Macron addresses his wife shoving him in the face on aircraft

French President, Emmanuel Macron has played down an apparent spat with his wife Brigitte, after a video emerged of 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 appears surprised but quickly regains his composure and waves to the press outside.

Speaking to reporters in Hanoi on Monday, Macron addressed the clip directly, pushing back against the speculation it sparked.

“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,” the president said.

Macron acknowledged the footage was genuine but criticized how it had been weaponized. “The videos are all real, and yes, sometimes people tamper with them, but people are attributing all kinds of nonsense to them.”