By Richard Inumah
29 May, 2025
The office of French President Emmanuel Macron has dismissed suggestions of discord after footage emerged appearing to show his wife, Brigitte Macron, pushing him in the face before the couple disembarked from a plane in Vietnam.
The video, filmed on Sunday as the Macrons arrived in Vietnam to mark the start of his Southeast Asia tour, shows the President standing in the doorway of the aircraft when a pair of hands—belonging to a person wearing a red blazer, later identified as Brigitte—reach out and appear to shove him away.
The French leader’s office initially denied the authenticity of the footage, but eventually confirmed it was genuine.
While the embarrassed-looking leader claimed the pair were “squabbling,” a professional lip reader has since decoded the shocking exchange.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife delivered a scathing four-word remark just moments after shoving him in the face, a lip reader has revealed.
“As the aircraft door opens, President Macron is seen turning toward Brigitte. In an unexpected moment, she pushes him in the face,” a lip reader told The Express.
After the door opened and Macron noticed that the cameras were on him, he then said “Hi” before raising his hand.
“Emmanuel then steps closer to Brigitte before composing himself and crossing to the other side. Moments later, he signals for her to follow him with, ‘Let’s go,’” the lip reader said.
“He thanks the pilot and waves at the cameras, trying to recover the public-facing image.”
“But at the top of the stairs, things turn icy again. He offers his arm; she ignores it, choosing to cling to the railing instead. As she passes, she appears to mutter, ‘Dégage, espèce de loser,’ translated in English, ‘Stay away, you loser.’”
Moments later, the lip reader claims Macron said, “Essayons, s’il te plaît” — which translated to, “Let’s try, please?”
She then responds, “Non.”
“His closing expression, and the phrase lipread as ‘Je vois,’ translated in english “I see” says it all,” the lip reader went on.
The moment was widely circulated in French media and sparked commentary about the nature of the interaction, with the headline of the daily newspaper Le Parisien asking: ‘Slap or Squabble?’
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Macron said he had been “joking” with his wife, adding that “everyone needs to calm down.”
His office issued a similar response, saying “it was a moment of closeness” between the pair.
“It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around. It’s a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists,” his office said, according to AP.
The French president used the episode to caution against misinterpretations online, pointing to false claims circulated earlier this month that a crumpled up tissue he picked up during a train trip to Ukraine was a bag of cocaine.
The couple first met when Macron was a 15-year-old student at La Providence, a French private school in Amiens, where Brigitte worked as a teacher. The pair reportedly grew close while co-writing a play together, when Brigitte oversaw a theatre workshop.
The president’s parents initially thought that their son had feelings for Brigitte’s daughter, a classmate. But once they discovered the nature of the relationship between Emmanuel and Brigitte, who was married to André-Louis Auzière at the time and had three children, they sent their son to finish his final school year at Lycée Henri-IV in Paris.
“When Emmanuel met Brigitte, we certainly did not say, ‘How wonderful!,’” said Jean-Michel Macron, father of Emmanuel Macron, according to a biography of the President.
The then-schoolboy reportedly told Brigitte, before leaving: “Whatever you do, I will marry you.” The French president who has no children of his own, studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University before completing a master’s degree in public affairs.
The couple eventually married in 2007, when he was 29 and she was 54, one year after her divorce.
Following his presidential election in 2017, Macron released a “charter” to clarify his partner’s role within government.
Under the new direction, the President stated that Brigitte would work to represent France at international summits and meetings, support Macron’s endeavours as head of state, and work with charities and other cultural organizations in the “fields of disability, education, health, culture, child protection and gender equality,” according to the Elysee Palace.
The First Lady regularly holds Le Gala des Pièces Jaunes, a charity event in Paris to raise funds for sick and hospitalized children.
France’s First Lady has also been outspoken against cyberbullying. During a 2019 meeting, she read letters sent to her from parents and students explaining the dire effects online bullying can have.
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