Brigitte Macron’s infamous ‘slap’ of Emmanuel ‘was sparked when she saw a message sent to him from Iranian actress’, new book claims
Brigitte Macron’s infamous slap at husband Emmanuel was sparked when she saw a message from an Iranian actress on his phone, a new book has claimed.
In the video, which went viral in May last year, the first lady was seen shoving the French president in the face as the couple prepared to get off the plane in Vietnam.
At the time, Macron insisted the incident was “trivial” and said he was just “arguing with my wife, or rather joking.”
However, French journalist Florian Tardif painted a very different picture in his new book titled ‘(Almost) Perfect Couple’, which promises an ‘investigation’ into the ‘forbidden areas’ of husband and wife.
Speaking on RTL radio on Wednesday, Tardif, a Paris Match journalist who has been following the Macrons since 2017, described the infamous moment as a classic ‘couple scene’.
‘What happened to that? [Brigitte Macron]saw a message from a well-known person. “He is an Iranian player,” he said.
Tardif claims that Macron maintained a ‘platonic’ relationship with the famous star for ‘a few months’, but wrote her ‘quite forward messages’ such as ‘I find you very beautiful’.
“That’s what those close to him told me, and that’s what I’m saying this morning,” Tardif said, emphasizing that he had “confirmed” the story and that everything in his book was based on “facts.”
In the video, which went viral in May last year, the first lady was seen shoving the French president in the face as the couple prepared to get off the plane in Vietnam.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron photographed in Athens in April
The journalist claimed these messages caused ‘tension’ within the couple and led to a heated and ‘significant’ argument on the presidential plane on the Hanoi airport tarmac.
‘This particular scene was made public because there was a misunderstanding on the plane. We thought the debate was over. It wasn’t,” he concluded.
Tardif claimed that the Elysee regretted not being honest about the dispute, ‘because at that moment they were able to show that they were a couple, not a perfect couple, but a real couple.’
At the time, an Elysee official described the event as ‘a moment when the president and his wife relaxed, laughing one last time before the journey began’.
Brigitte Macron’s representatives denied to Le Parisien on Wednesday that the scene was linked to the Iranian actress and also emphasized that the First Lady would never check her husband’s phone.
“Brigitte Macron strongly denied this account directly to the author, stating that she never looked at her husband’s mobile phone on March 5,” the president’s entourage said. he said, adding that this detail was not published by the author.
In April, Donald Trump made a sarcastic reference to the infamous incident in a speech at the White House, prompting fierce condemnation across France.
“Then I called France, Macron’s jaw is still healing because his wife treats him so badly,” the US President said at the Easter luncheon at the White House, causing the audience to burst into laughter.
Macron immediately responded and said comments about his marriage were ‘neither elegant nor up to standard’.
The joke caused great anger among citizens Politicians across the country, including Macron’s critics.
Even Manuel Bompard, coordinator of the far-left France Unbowed party, rushed to her defense.
“You are aware of the extent of my disagreements with the president, but I find it absolutely unacceptable that Donald Trump speaks to him in this way and talks about his wife in this way,” Bompard told broadcaster BFMTV.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron are photographed at the Elysee Palace in Paris on April 29
The 25-year age difference between France’s first couple has long sparked heated debate.
Brigitte, 73, first met Emmanuel, 48, when she was 15, in a drama class at a Catholic school in Amiens, in northern France.
He was 39 years old, married, with a son and two daughters; the eldest of whom shared a classroom with the future president.
In ‘(Almost) Perfect Couple’ Tardif claims to revisit all the major decisions, milestones and debates that have defined Macron’s nine years in office.
He claims that in 2017, at the start of his first term, Macron told a close friend: ‘If Brigitte is unhappy, I will not be able to cope and I will fail in this five-year term.’
