Brigitte Macron, the first lady of France, was seen shoving her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, in a shocking video that has since gone viral.
The moment was captured on camera Sunday evening when the couple was landing in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, for a state visit.
A member of the French president’s staff was seen opening the door of their presidential plane moments before Brigitte, 72, placed both of her hands on 47-year-old Macron’s face and pushed him back.
The French president was clearly caught off guard by the action, as he had a shocked expression on his face when he turned to face the plane’s entryway.
He seemingly tried to brush off the awkward snafu by waving to members of the press and Vietnamese officials who were waiting below to greet him and his wife.
Macron is then seen for a few moments going back into the plane, out of the view of the outside public.
He and Brigitte eventually exited the aircraft side-by-side, but noticeably did not hold each other while doing so. Macron actually appeared to extend his arm for his wife, but she opted not to take it.
In a statement Monday, the French president tried to downplay the incident, saying he was “squabbling and, rather, joking” with his wife, adding, “Everyone needs to calm down.”
He also blamed his opponents for blowing the altercation out of proportion and making it into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe,” noting, “People are saying all sorts of nonsense.”
A source close to Macron also downplayed the matter to the Agence France-Presse, a French international news agency headquartered in Paris.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by joking around,” the insider told the outlet.
“It’s a moment of togetherness. No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists.”
The Macrons have been married since 2007. However, their relationship has been heavily scrutinized due to Brigitte meeting the president when he was only 15 while she was his drama teacher.