French President Emmanuel Macron‘s wife shoved him in the face as they touched down in Vietnam for a state visit — which the embarrassed-looking leader admitted Monday came while they were “squabbling.”
Shocking footage of the incident shows the president’s plane door opening to reveal Macron at the entrance in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Sunday evening.
Suddenly, his wife Brigitte’s arms emerge from the left of the open doorway as she places both hands on her husband’s face and shoves him firmly.
Macron appears startled — but quickly recovers when realizing he is in view, and turns to smile and wave through the open door.
Brigitte then doesn’t take her husband’s proffered arm as they walk down the staircase, where Vietnamese officials greet them.
Macron’s office initially denied the authenticity of the footage before confirming it was genuine, with the leader trying to downplay it.
“We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” Macron said Monday, adding that the incident was being overblown into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe” by his enemies.
“People are saying all sorts of nonsense. Everyone needs to calm down,” he added.