FRENCH president Emmanuel Macron touched down in Vietnam on Sunday expecting a routine diplomatic visit.
But less than 24 hours after landing he found himself fending off claims of marital strife after his wife Brigitte, 25 years his senior, seemingly attacked him as they left the plane.
The SunEmmanuel Macron appears to be hit in the face by his wife in footage showing them leaving the plane[/caption]
The President briefly composed himself after what having been engaging in what looked like an intense conversation with his spouseAP
Getty – ContributorThe Macrons have faced plenty of scrutiny thanks to the fact that Brigitte is 25 years his senior[/caption]
Though French officials dismissed the speculation, the eyebrow-raising incident is just the latest in a relationship that has been plagued with scandal and controversy from the moment it started.
The future president was just 15 years old (which is the age of consent in France) when he met the woman who he would go on to make his First Lady.
At the time she was 39 years old and married with three children – and his drama teacher in school.
Macron, 47, can be seen standing in the plane’s door engaged in a seemingly tense conversation, before 72-year-old Brigitte’s arm reaches out and shoves the president in the face.
A startled Macron then leaves the plane – though notably she appears to reject his offer of taking his arm as they walk down the stairs.
When the video came to light, French officials initially called it “probable fake news” – comparing it to the recent viral photo that some said was proof Macron had a cocaine habit.
But after the Vietnam arrival footage was verified as being true, Macron and his aides once again downplayed the footage.
“My wife and I were horsing around, having a joke, and I was surprised by that and that becomes a sort of geopolitical disaster. It’s nonsense,” he said.
An aide also added: “It was a moment when the president and his wife were unwinding one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh – it was a moment of complicity.”
But according to body language expert Judi James, this incident looks to be anything but what the French term “chamaillerie”, a bit of horsing around.
“I find it shocking that they’ve attempted to explain it by saying that it was just play, just a couple letting off steam,” said Judi.
“Her hand comes out and presses against his face, and if anybody wants to try this on themselves, you’ll feel how vulnerable it makes you feel.
“Macron looks rather shocked. We can see later on, if we look at a close up of his hand, we can see that it’s bored into a fist. The knuckles look white – so clearly a lot of pent up tension.”
“These are veterans of being on the world stage,” added Judi.
“They know that when the plane lands, if they did want to have a little bit of fun and laughter, they would do it before they got to the plane door.
“When we see them emerging, there’s this attempt to sort of do a glow up, to pretend that nothing happened.
“That’s not normal body language behaviour in any relationship. I find it very worrying, as well as disturbing.”
Schoolkid romance
While Brigitte now faces a barrage of speculation concerning what else might be plaguing their relationship behind closed doors, it’s far from the first time she’s been at the receiving end of criticism.
And much of that is thanks to the very unconventional way the couple found themselves together in the first place.
AFPBrigitte seemed to refuse his offer of taking his arm when they disembarked[/caption]
EPABrigitte has been France’s First Lady ever since Macron stormed to the presidency in 2017[/caption]
France 5The couple met when Macron was just 15 years old and she was his 39-year-old drama teacher. Pictured, in 1993[/caption]
Brigitte was not only 25 years Macron’s senior, but also his drama teacher at the Catholic Lycee La Providence in Amiens, where her daughter, Laurence, was his classmate.
“At 15, Macron had the maturity of a 25-year-old,” his former sports teacher Daniel Leleu told to Bloomberg.
“He preferred to spend his time talking with the teachers rather than his classmates.”
The young Emmanuel and his 39-year old teacher started to grow close when they co-authored a drama piece together after meeting in 1993.
“You know, the day when we wrote the play together, I had a feeling I was working with Mozart,” Brigitte later recalled to a friend.
“The writing became an excuse. I felt that we had always known each other.”
“All the teachers were buzzing about Emmanuel,” she said of the time she arrived to teach at the school, adding that she soon found herself enamoured with his “exceptional intelligence, a way of thinking that I had never seen before.”
Brigitte at the time was married to banker Andre-Louis Auziere, and already had three children together.
What is clear is that when Emmanuel met Brigitte, we couldn’t just say, ‘That’s great.’
Francoise Macron
It was the summer of 1994 when her family found out about the affair, after the pair were caught sunbathing by her elderly parent’s pool, according to Maelle Brun’s biography Brigitte Macron: An Unfettered Woman.
According to the book, upon hearing that his wife was having an affair Auziere had a “violent reaction” and stormed out of the family home.
Family uproar
Nor did the news that their son was having an affair with one of his teachers go down well with Emmanuel’s parents, both doctors.
Initially, they believed he had been dating Brigitte’s eldest daughter, Lawrence, until a friend revealed the truth.
“We just couldn’t believe it,” his mother Francoise recalled.
“What is clear is that when Emmanuel met Brigitte, we couldn’t just say, ‘That’s great.’”
His father Jean-Michel, meanwhile, said he “almost fell off his chair” when he learned of the affair.
The pair asked Brigitte that she stop dating their son until he turned 18.
The young Macron was considered a star pupil in school thanks to his intelligence
MegaAt the time, Brigitte was married with three children[/caption]
AlamyAfter a ten-year-long divorce from her banker husband, the couple wed in 2007[/caption]
But in reply she said “I can’t promise you anything,” according to the France 3 documentary Brigitte Macron: A French Novel.
News of the affair quickly spread around town, causing uproar.
Furious anonymous letters were sent to the headquarters of the chocolate factory run by Brigitte’s family.
Neighbours and locals also went out of their way to spit on Brigitte’s front door whenever they walked past it, while friends of the teacher were quick to denounce her.
“Friends with whom she went on holiday changed overnight and no longer wanted to speak to her,” an acquaintance told her biographer.
Marriage vow
Despite the backlash the pair were undeterred, their relationship continuing to blossom.
Speaking to Paris Match magazine, Brigitte revealed that when he was just 17 the young romantic made a vow that he would marry her, and promised to come back to find her once he had completed further studies at a prestigious pre-university school in Paris.
“You cannot get rid of me. I will come back and marry you,” he is reported to have told her.
I told myself that he would fall in love with someone his [own] age. It didn’t happen
Brigitte Macron
“My head was in a mess,” Brigitte added as she recalled this period of separation.
“I told myself that he would fall in love with someone his [own] age. It didn’t happen.”
Macron would go on to study politics and international affairs at university, during which time his fellow classmates recall him running to the station at the end of each week to visit her.
Brigitte, however, was still married, and it would be a full ten years until her divorce to her banker husband was finalised.
With the papers eventually signed in 2007, the couple wasted no time in tying the knot, although she was initially reluctant to say yes to his proposal over fears he would want to have children.
Brigitte, then aged 54, and Macron, then aged 29, wed each other in the seaside town of La Touquet – ironically the same place that she married her first husband back in 1974.
In attendance were his parents as well as Brigitte’s three children and other family members.
Macron’s toast at the ceremony did not shy away from the relationship’s unusual origin story either.
At 17 Macron made a promise to Brigitte that he would marry her
GettyNeighbours and friends shunned Brigitte when news of their affair broke[/caption]
ReutersDuring the election Macron was accused of using Brigitte to hide a homosexual relationship[/caption]
“Each and every one of you is a witness to these last 13 years,” he said.
“And you have accepted us. You have made us what we are today.
“I want to thank you for loving us the way we are, and I want to thank Brigitte’s children because this has not been easy for them.”
‘Heads held high’
Tiphaine Auziere, Brigitte’s youngest daughter, was just 9 years old when she found out about her mother’s affair.
“I learned a lot about human nature then,” she said.
“I know that in these moments we must focus on what is important and move forward, ignoring the criticism.
“There was everything, attacks, rumours, punishments. At that time there were no such things as social networks, but we lived in a small provincial town, everything was known.
“Despite this, we held our heads high.”
Nonetheless, Tiphaine, now 41, has no hard feelings towards Emmanuel.
“A family separation can be a sorrow and an opportunity,’ she added.
‘Recomposition can prove to be an enrichment. I have a beloved father and stepfather.”
By the time the couple were married, Macron was a rising star in the world of French politics and in 2017 became France’s youngest-ever president at the age of 39, after a period in government as Minister of Finance.
Their relationship faced serious scrutiny during the election, with opponents fuelling unfounded claims that he was using Brigitte to hide a homosexual relationship.
Despite the intense scrutiny of the world stage and a string of crises affecting his presidency, the couple have continued to put on a brave show in public.
But with the emergence of Sunday’s bizarre footage, questions will only continue to mount over what their relationship is really like behind closed doors.