Video: footage of Macron being slapped by his wife before getting off plane goes viral

Emmanuel Macron’s arrival in Vietnam certainly did not go as the French president had anticipated. The moment he disembarked from the presidential plane was overshadowed after the media captured his wife, Brigitte, slapping him just before he stepped off.

The French president's office downplayed the images, captured by Asociated Press, which had already gone viral. Given the turn of events, Macron himself tried to deny that what happened was "a domestic dispute", but that "we were joking as we usually do."

Macron, surprised to find himself face to face with the media filming

The video shows the president, seen in profile, engaged in a heated discussion with someone, apparently unaware that the plane door was opening. Suddenly, his wife—whose arms are the only visible part—is seen violently pushing him in the face.

Macron seems surprised, turns quickly and, noticing the presence of the media filming, makes a hand gesture of greeting. The couple descends the stairs of the plane and Emmanuel Macron extends his arm to his wife, as is his custom, but she does not accept it and leans on the railing.

"A moment of complicity"

The video, which went viral, has unleashed a barrage of comments on social networks. Macron's office initially denied the authenticity of the images, before it was confirmed that they were truthful.

Subsequently an aide to the president described the incident as a harmless couple's "spat." Another member of his circle downplayed the incident. "It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing before the start of the trip, they were joking around," said this source who asked not to be named. "It's a moment of complicity," he added.

Vietnam is the first stop on Macron's nearly week-long tour of Southeast Asia, during which he will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.