As the world continues to question why French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife appeared to slap him, his office has changed its story.
It all went down in Hanoi, Vietnam, when the French president and the First Lady Brigitte disembarked from their plane.
Cameras appeared to catch what looked suspiciously like Brigitte shoving her husband’s face.
Footage shows the moment 72-year-old Brigitte placed both hands on the president’s face and gave him a firm push just as the aircraft door swung open.
Macron, 47, looked visibly caught off guard but quickly tried to recover, waving to the cameras as though nothing happened.
A professional lip reader has revealed what was allegedly said in the heated exchange. According to The Express: “As the aircraft door opens, President Macron is seen turning toward Brigitte. In an unexpected moment, she pushes him in the face.”
What followed was apparently more frosty than friendly.
After a strained “Hi” from Macron and a hopeful “Let’s go,” Brigitte reportedly rejected his arm and clung to the handrail instead.
The lip reader claims she then muttered: “Dégage, espèce de loser,” which translates to “Stay away, you loser.” Macron, ever the diplomat, tried to smooth things over with: “Essayons, s’il te plaît” (“Let’s try, please?”). Her final word? “Non.”
Macron’s closing response, according to the lip reader, was a resigned: “Je vois” (“I see”).
Macron’s office initially fumbled the response. Some outlets, including CNN, reported that the Élysée even floated the idea it might have been AI-generated and blamed pro-Russian accounts for spreading the footage.
But that denial didn’t last long.
Breves de presse, a French outlet, later reported that the Élysée confirmed the footage was real, calling it a “moment of togetherness.”
Macron himself also spoke out, dismissing the speculation: “There’s a video showing me joking and teasing my wife and somehow that becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe, with people even coming up with theories to explain it.
"The videos are all real, and yes, sometimes people tamper with them, but people are attributing all kinds of nonsense to them.”
He added: “People are saying all sorts of nonsense. Everyone needs to calm down.”
Body language experts have weighed in, too, per the Daily Mail.
One claimed the couple did not look playful in the video, despite the Élysée’s characterization.
In fact, later public appearances - like their trip to Indonesia - seemed to overcompensate.
Observers noted that they “were looking like a bride and groom on their wedding day,” presumably to squash any rumors that things were rocky.