Brigitte Macron’s controversial moment when she slapped her husband, Emmanuel Macron, reportedly stemmed from discovering a message on his phone from an Iranian actress, according to revelations in a new book.
The incident, which quickly went viral, occurred in May of last year. The first lady of France was captured on video pushing President Macron’s face as they were about to disembark from a plane in Vietnam.
At the time, President Macron downplayed the episode, dismissing it as ‘nothing’ more than a playful exchange between himself and his wife, describing it as mere ‘bickering’ or ‘joking’.
However, French journalist Florian Tardif offers a different perspective in his latest book, ‘A (Nearly) Perfect Couple’. The book promises an in-depth exploration of the ‘forbidden zones’ within the marriage of the Macrons.
During an interview on RTL radio, Tardif, a journalist with Paris Match who has been observing the Macrons since 2017, described the incident as a typical ‘couple’s scene’.
“What happened is that Brigitte Macron saw a message from a well-known figure—an Iranian actress,” Tardif explained, shedding new light on the notorious moment.
Tardif claims that Macron maintained a ‘platonic’ relationship with the acclaimed star ‘for a few months’, but sent her ‘messages that went quite far’, such as: ‘I find you very pretty.’
‘That’s what I’ve been told by those close to him, and that’s what I’m saying this morning,’ Tardif said, insisting he has ‘verified’ the story and that everything in his book is based on ‘facts’.
In the viral video from May last year, the first lady was seen pushing the French president in the face as the couple prepared to get off a plane in Vietnam
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron pictured in Athens in April
These messages caused ‘tension’ within the couple, culminating in a heated and ‘significant’ argument aboard the presidential plane on the tarmac at Hanoi airport, the journalist claimed.
‘This private scene became public because there was a misunderstanding on the plane. We thought the argument was over. It wasn’t,’ he concluded.
Tardif claimed the Elysee actually regretted not being honest about the dispute, ‘simply because they could have shown at that moment that they were a couple, a real couple, not a perfect couple.’
At the time, an Elysee official described the episode as ‘a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh’.
Brigitte Macron’s representatives denied to Le Parisien on Wednesday that the scene was linked to the Iranian actress and further emphasised that the First Lady would never check her husband’s phone.
‘Brigitte Macron categorically denied this account directly to the author on March 5, specifying that she never looks at her husband’s mobile phone,’ the president’s entourage said, adding that this detail had not been published by the author.
In April, Donald Trump made a mocking reference to the infamous episode in a speech at the White House, provoking fierce condemnation across France.
‘Then I call up France, Macron – whose wife treats him extremely badly – he’s still recovering from the right to the jaw,’ the US President joked at the White House Easter lunch, eliciting laughter from the audience.
Macron immediately responded, saying the comments about his marriage were ‘neither elegant nor up to standard’.
The joke sparked widespread anger among politicians across the country, including Macron’s critics.
Even Manuel Bompard, coordinator of the hard-left France Unbowed party, rushed to his defence.
‘You are aware of the extent of my disagreements with the president, but for Donald Trump to speak to him like that and to speak of his wife in such a manner – I find that absolutely unacceptable,’ Bompard told broadcaster BFMTV.
French President Emmanuel Macron, and his wife Brigitte Macron pictured at the Elysee Palace in Paris, April 29
The 25-year age gap of France’s first couple has long sparked spirited debate.
Brigitte, 73, first met Emmanuel, 48, when he was a 15-year-old in her drama class in a Catholic school in Amiens, northern France.
She was 39, married, with a son and two daughters, the eldest of which shared a class with the future president.
In ‘An (Almost) Perfect Couple’, Tardif purports to revisit all the major decisions, turning points and controversies that have defined Macron’s nine years in office.
In 2017, at the dawn of his first term, he claims Macron confided to a close friend: ‘If Brigitte is unhappy, I won’t be able to cope and I’ll fail this five-year term.’
