Topics: Politics, Sex and Relationships, Social Media, World News, Emmanuel Macron
The internet has been sent into a right spiral ever since footage of French president Emmanuel Macron getting 'slapped' by his wife, Brigitte, went viral on social media.
On Sunday (25 May), the married couple - who share a 25-year age difference - landed in Hanoi, Vietnam, to begin their tour of South-East Asia, with further stops also including Indonesia and Singapore.
Footage from the Associated Press showed 47-year-old Macron standing by the plane's exit as workers opened the door but, as the pair readied the doorway and staircase for their exit, an arm suddenly came into view and appeared to 'slap' Macron’s face.
Seconds later, Brigitte, 72, walked out behind her husband before they both descended the stairs onto the runway.
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Amidst the avalanche of speculation over the incident online, a body language expert has now weighed in on the matter, making a major claim about the exact moment Macron’s wife 'slapped' him.
Jesús Enrique Rosas, the self-proclaimed 'Body Language Guy', took to X on Monday (26 May) to share his two cents.
He began the seven-tweet-long thread writing: "Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron were arriving in Vietnam when the cameras captured this interaction.
"But was it an actual, aggressive gesture, or was something else? Let's find out..."
Sharing a second-by-second breakdown using screenshotted images of the interaction, Rosas began with the bold claim: "This is one split second before the 'shoving'. This is how we know that Macron didn't expect the gesture, since his body was relaxed, he had a neutral expression and his left hand/wrist was relaxed as well."
Next up was a deep dive into what the expert dubbed 'the two stages of the 'shovelling'.
"I say shovelling because at first I thought it was a slap, but in fact Brigitte used both hands to push Macron's head backwards," he went on. "At the peak of the gesture, Macron realises everyone out there just witnessed the incident."
Rosas continued: "He's startled and tries to play it cool, greeting. I noticed that he made an unnecessary 'anchor' gesture, putting his left hand on the seat to his left.
"This is something that we do under stress (touch the wall, a chair, something), without really leaning or using it as support. It's obvious that he was startled."
The expert then noticed that Macron and Brigitte 'don't get out of the plane immediately', adding: "He takes a minute to compose himself. We can see a pacifying gesture of touching his nose.
"When they are finally going down the stairs, he offers Brigitte his arm but Brigitte ignores him. Macron still keeps his arm bent for a few more steps until finally giving up."
And, upon exiting the plane, Rosas pointed out that the world leader 'gave a handshake to the guy waiting for them, and used a dominant handshake (palm down)'.
"Maybe he wanted to feel 'dominant' in one way of another after that shove. Better this than shoving Brigitte down the stairs, I guess," he theorised.
Lastly, Rosas analysed what took place body language-wise after 'all the greeting'.
Tyla has reached out to Macron's representatives for comment on such claims.
"Macron's left hand is in a white knuckle fist, a common sign of concealed anger," he penned. "His face is also beyond serious: that downward brow area is not part of his usual body language baseline.
"He's got a squarish head, but the jaw looks broader than usual. With those lips pressing, my guess is that he was clenching his jaw and his jaw muscles were protruding because of the pressure."
Macron has since claimed the exchange may not have been what it seemed.
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."
