Watch: France’s first lady seems to push her husband as they land in Vietnam. He says they were joking

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS AP They were just playfighting That was French President Emmanuel Macron s explanation Monday for video images that exhibited his wife Brigitte pushing her husband away with both hands on his face before they disembarked from their plane to start a tour of Southeast Asia this weekend The moment rapidly made headlines in France with media trying to decipher the interaction that cameras spotted through the just-opened door of the plane The headline of a story on the website of the daily Le Parisien newspaper solicited Slap or squabble The images of Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron disembarking in Vietnam trigger a lot of comment Macron later recounted reporters that the couple married since after meeting at the high school where he was a candidate and she was a professor were purely joking around We are squabbling and rather joking with my wife he reported adding that the affair was being overblown into a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe In video taken by The Associated Press as the Macrons arrived in Hanoi Vietnam on Sunday a uniformed man can be seen pulling open the plane door and revealing the president standing inside dressed in a suit and talking to someone who wasn t visible Brigitte Macron s arms in red were seen reaching out and pushing Macron away with one hand covering his mouth and part of his nose while the other was on his jaw The French leader recoiled turning his head away Then apparently realizing that he was on camera he broke into a smile and gave a little wave Related Articles The US and EU are in a showdown over exchange What does Trump want and what can Europe offer Israeli troops fire warning shots as Palestinians overwhelm new Gaza food center As Ukrainian POWs die in Russian prisons autopsies point to a system of brutality How is the new Gaza aid plan supposed to work and why are so plenty of aid groups against it Tesla s monthly sales in Europe plunge by half signaling backlash against Musk runs deep In subsequent images Macron and his wife wearing a red jacket appeared at the top of the stairs He offered an arm but she didn t take it They walked down the carpeted stairs side by side The French leader argued that the images and reaction to them offered a cautionary tale about disinformation in the social media age noting that in contemporary weeks other videos had been used to circulate made-up stories about him Everyone necessities to calm down he stated His office also downplayed the interaction It was 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 his office reported Brigitte Macron was Brigitte Auzi re a married mother of three children when they met at his high school A professor she supervised the drama club where Emmanuel Macron a literature lover was a member He moved to Paris for his last year of high school but promised to marry Brigitte She later moved to the French capital to join him and divorced before they decisively married