French president Emmanuel Macron arrived in Vietnam on Monday but an apparent physical altercation with his wife threatened to overshadow his six-day Southeast Asia tour.
In an incident recorded by several international press cameras, Mr Macron stood near the aircraft stairs when his wife appeared to smack him on the mouth and push him towards the media and hosts waiting to greet the couple.
Brigitte Macron, dressed in a red suit, seemed to shove her husband’s face with both hands as soon as the cockpit door opened.
The French president smiled and waved awkwardly before the two disembarked, but Ms Macron refused to take his arm.
Ms Macron remained momentarily hidden behind the plane’s fuselage, which blocked the view of her expression or body language.
The video quickly went viral on social media.
Mr Marcon arrived in Hanoi late on Monday – a first visit by a French president in nearly a decade – in an effort to boost France’s influence in a former colony.
The visit comes soon after US president Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50 per cent tariff on European Union goods from 1 June, fuelling tensions with the 27-country bloc, though he later delayed that deadline to 9 July.
Mr Trump last month imposed tariffs on Vietnam as well, along with most other countries in the region.
Elysee Palace, the official residence of the French president, appeared to downplay the incident with his wife, after initially denying and blaming it on “pro-Russian accounts”.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh,” an official said. “It was a moment of closeness.”
Many observers, however, found it hard to believe that it was playful banter and said it was an “embarrassing” moment that Mr Macron would be compelled to navigate during and after the tour.
Gilbert Collard, a former EU lawmaker from France, said “everyone is laughing” at the couple and asked if the former teacher slapping her student was true. Brigitte Macron, 72, was a high school teacher of Emmanuel Macron, 47.
“Looks like even world leaders have to navigate a little domestic turbulence! Just goes to show, no matter how high you fly, there’s always someone to keep you grounded,” X user Rob Frasca said. “What a moment!”
“French President Emmanuel Macron & wife Brigitte caught in a heated moment the second they touched down in Vietnam. Scuffle caught on camera showed Brigitte taking a swing mid argument. The plane may have landed smoothly… her slap dint quit,” another user, Nabeela Jamal, said.
Many others shared close-up images of Mr Macron’s clenched jaw and a hard fist as he faced the camera with Ms Macron by his side.
The couple met at Lycée La Providence, a Jesuit high school in Amiens, where Ms Macron was the future president’s drama teacher. He was 15 years old at the time.
Mr Macron is 24 years younger than Ms Macron. They got married in 2007.
The incident came just as Mr Macron was coming out of the “cocaine controversy”. France furiously denied a fake claim that a viral video showed Mr Macron removing a small white object from a table which some social media users, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova falsely claimed was a bag of cocaine.
Mr Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz were travelling on a train from Poland to Ukraine to visit Volodymyr Zelensky when the incident occurred.
Mr Zakharova suggested the leaders were using drugs on the train when reporters entered their cabin, calling it a “cocaine party”.
The Elysee Palace refuted the claims saying the object was a crumpled tissue. “This is a tissue. For blowing your nose. When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs,” it said on X.
Mr Macron arrived in Vietnam for the first leg of his Southeast Asian tour. From there, he was scheduled to visit Indonesia and Singapore.
The visit saw France sign 14 deals with Vietnam, an export-dependent country facing pressure from Washington to buy more American goods or faces a 46 per cent tariff.
The deals covered airplane purchase, cooperation on nuclear energy, defence, railways, Airbus earth-observation satellites and Sanofi vaccines.
Vietnam’s president Luong Cuong said the defence partnership involved “sharing of information on strategic matters” and stronger cooperation in the defence industry, cybersecurity and anti-terrorism.