Featured Image Credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Gen Z, Politics, Sex and Relationships, Social Media, World News, Emmanuel Macron
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Gen Z, Politics, Sex and Relationships, Social Media, World News, Emmanuel Macron
This year so far, we've been far from short of viral moments taking over the internet when it comes to the world's leading political figures.
Just to name a few, there was that encounter between JD Vance and Pope Leo, the Melania Trump 'body double' conspiracy theory and a whole arsenal of moments we could pick out when it comes to US president Donald Trump - but the latest interaction to add to this mix is all about French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Chances are, if you've been doomscrolling on social media this week, you'll have no doubt seen a load of clips that appeared to show Macron's wife, Brigitte, 'slapping' him before they stepped off a plane.
Now, in case the viral clip has somehow passed you by, the couple landed in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday (25 May) to begin their tour of South-East Asia, with further stops also including Indonesia and Singapore.
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Footage from the Associated Press showed 47-year-old Macron standing by the plane's exit as workers opened the door.
As they readied the doorway and staircase for the couple’s exit, an arm suddenly came into view and appeared to 'slap' Macron’s face.
Seconds later, his wife, 72, walked out behind him before the pair descended the stairs onto the runway.
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Amidst all the hullaballoo online speculating over the nature of the 'slap', Gen Z have been equally pretty shocked after realising how Macron even met Brigitte in the first place.
The younger generation may not know but the French president was actually just a teenager when he met who would go on to become his future spouse - who was 39 at the time.
Macron was just 15 when he met Madame Auziere, who was his teacher at the time, at Lycee La Providence in Amiens.
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To add even more layers to the 'how we met' story, Brigitte was actually already married to the likes of banker, André-Louis Auzière, with whom she shares three children.
Additionally, her eldest daughter, Laurence, was even in the same class as Macron.
After the news of Macron and Brigitte's blossoming romance came to light, and caused a scandal in the province, the teen's parents sent him to Paris to attend another school. However, that wasn't enough to keep the pair apart.
Brigitte eventually married Macron, who was a civil servant in his late twenties at the time, in Le Touquet in 2007, after divorcing her ex-husband the previous year.
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After finding out about the whole situation, people rushed online to share their shock with one person writing: "I just read the comments and found out that they were teacher and student, and that [they met] when he was 15?!"
"Macron was just 15 when he fell for his drama teacher Brigitte, she is 72 years old. He is 25 years younger than his wife," penned a second, while a third chimed in: "Macron age gap is 25 years."
Now, the alleged scuffle between the world leader and his missus have inevitably sent the internet into overdrive, but Macron has since claimed the exchange may not have been what it seemed.
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He later told reporters that they had simply been joking around, with France24 reporting he said: "We are horsing around and, really, joking with my wife."
Macron added that the incident had been massively overblown, saying: "It becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe."
His office had also previously offered an explanation, echoing that the couple were just mucking about.
"It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around," a statement said. "It’s a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists."