Brigitte Macron pushed French President Emmanuel Macron in the face as they left a plane in Vietnam last year, reportedly after spotting messages he sent to Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani. The moment captured widespread attention online, fueling rumors of marital tension, though the couple dismissed it as playful banter.
Details from Florian Tardif’s Book
Florian Tardif, a political correspondent at Paris Match magazine, details the episode in his book Un Couple (Presque) Parfait — An (Almost) Perfect Couple. Tardif claims the 73-year-old first lady grew upset upon reading a text from her 48-year-old husband to the 42-year-old exiled actress. Fearing he might leave her, she reacted strongly to the exchange.
The messages reportedly went beyond casual chit-chat, including remarks like “I find you very pretty,” Tardif shared during RTL radio interviews promoting the book. A source near the couple noted that Brigitte Macron read a message “she was never meant to read,” sparking a dispute harsher than their usual exchanges.
“What hurt Brigitte was not so much the contents of the message as what it hinted at: a possibility … nothing tangible or that could really be denounced but the idea alone … was enough,” an extract published in Paris Match states. “She saw herself being erased,” a friend of the first lady told the author.
Denials from Involved Parties
Golshifteh Farahani has rejected affair rumors, describing her connection with Macron as “platonic” when pressed by reporters. A source close to Brigitte Macron firmly denied the claims during Tardif’s March interview, insisting she “never looks into her husband’s phone.”
Tardif maintains, “Everything in the book is facts, facts and only facts.” He also interviewed Brigitte Macron, who attributed the interaction to exhaustion from a turbulent flight. “There was a lot of turbulence during the flight, which stopped me sleeping,” she explained. “Right then, I didn’t want to get out [of the aircraft]. He tried to make me laugh. He gave me some water and I pushed him away.”
Farahani commented earlier this year, “I think that there is a lack of love for some people and they need to create romances like this to fill [the void].”
Official Responses at the Time
An Élysée official downplayed the incident initially, stating it was “a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh.” Macron later acknowledged they were “squabbling” and joked with reporters, expressing surprise at the global reaction. “We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” he said. “I’m surprised by it, it turns into some kind of global catastrophe where people are even coming up with theories to explain it. It’s nonsense.”
