French First Lady Brigitte Macron appeared to push her husband away, covering his face with both hands, just before they stepped off a plane to begin their tour of Southeast Asia this weekend.
President Emmanuel Macron described the gesture, captured on video, as a simple joke, although it sparked heated debate in France.
French media have been trying to make sense of the behaviour captured on cameras through the plane's newly opened door.
The headline of the article on the website of the daily newspaper Le Parisien read: “A slap in the face or a 'quarrel'? Images of Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron landing in Vietnam generate a lot of comments.”
Mr Macron later told reporters that the couple, who have been married since 2007 after meeting at high school where he was a student and she was his teacher, were just having fun.
“We tease each other, and actually joke with my wife,” he said, adding that the incident was being blown out of proportion: “It's becoming some kind of geopolitical catastrophe.”
His office had previously provided a similar explanation.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife relaxed one last time before the trip, teasing each other. It was a moment of complicity. It was enough to give conspiracy theorists food for thought,” his office said.
Video taken on Sunday as the Macron family landed in Hanoi, Vietnam, shows a man in uniform opening the plane's door and the president standing inside in a suit, talking to someone out of frame.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
