A video circulating online shows Brigitte Macron appearing to push her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, as they arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The footage shows a uniformed individual opening the aircraft door to reveal Macron in a suit. Brigitte Macron’s arms, in red sleeves, then reach out, seemingly pushing Macron away, with one hand briefly covering his mouth and nose while the other touches his jaw. Macron initially turns his head, then smiles and waves at cameras before stepping out.

The Macrons later descended the plane’s stairs together. The president offered his arm, but the first lady, wearing a red blazer, did not take it. 

Following the virality of the Associated Press-recorded clip, Macron dismissed the incident as playful banter.

Le Parisien newspaper’s website questioned, “Slap or ‘squabble’? The images of Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron disembarking in Vietnam trigger a lot of comment.”

Macron told reporters that the interaction was simply a joke between him and his wife, who he met when he was a student and she was his teacher. They married in 2007 when he was 29 and she was roughly 39.

“We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” he stated, according to the AP, suggesting the incident was being blown out of proportion.

The French President suggested the reaction to the images highlights the issue of disinformation on social media. 

“Everyone needs to calm down,” he urged.

Macron’s office also minimized the interaction. 

According to the AP, his office described it as “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.”

CNN reported that Macron’s office called the clip a “moment of togetherness,” with the couple “unwinding after a long trip and playfully teasing each other.” 

Macron is this weekend.

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