President Donald Trump of the United States, US, has called on the general public especially married people and intending couples to make sure the door remains closed apparently to avoid exposing their marital life to the public, this, he stated on Friday while reacting to a video footage of French President, Emmanuel Macron who was probably seen being slapped by his wife, Brigitte when the two first family of France were about to deplane shortly after they arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam on May 25, 2025 for an official visit, which stands as the first trip to Vietnam by a French president in nearly a decade.
President Emmanuel Macron who is 47 years old and currently doesn’t have a child of his own, at age 15, started having an affair with his La Providence High School teacher, Brigitte, who was almost in her 40th then, married and she was living with her husband with three kids.
Although 15 years is the legal age where one can no longer be considered as a minor in France, but Macron parents who were not happy of seeing their son having an affair with Brigitte whose two out of her three children were almost a year older than Emmanuel Macron, tried their best to dissolve the relationship by thus relocating Emmanuel Macron to Paris to continue his education.
The efforts of the French President, Emmanuel Macron’s parents to scatter the relationship proved abortive after Emmanuel Macron rounded off his education and switched back his love life to his married old school teacher, Brigitte, who later in January 2006, divorced her husband, Auzière who later died on December 24, 2019 and married Emmanuel Macron on 20 October 2007.
Brigitte’s former husband and the father of her three children who are currently in their early and late forties of the same age bracket with their stepfather, President Emmanuel Macron, died two years after Emmanuel Macron became president of France on May 7, 2017.
According to CNN, some beliefs and unwritten laws in France protect the private life of politicians and when the video footage of Brigitte appears to have slapped the number one citizen of France, President Emmanuel Macron, the French media only broadcast the video temporarily and in less than 24 hours, the news of the video was no longer seen on the French media airspace.
Macron, shortly after the video footage went viral, dismissed the video and the domestic violence it suggests.
Emmanuel Macron claims he “simply joked with his wife”, as they do “quite often”.
But close watchers observed that when President Emmanuel Macron offered his hand to his wife as they often do while coming down from the plane stairs, the visibly unhappy Brigitte probably refused and she was seen walking down the aircraft staircase alone.
“As the door of the plane opened, Brigitte Macron’s arm could be seen eagerly holding a hand to her husband’s face. Looking surprised, the Head of State quickly turned to say hello out. The presidential couple then got engaged on the stairs and Emmanuel Macron stretched out his arm to his wife as he usually does. But she didn’t grab it and held on to the catwalk”, one of the close watchers stated.
When President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter about the viral video appearing to show French President Emmanuel Macron being slapped by his wife, Brigitte as they disembarked from a plane in Vietnam, Trump responded by saying make sure the door remains closed.
“This week there was a video on board a plane that showed the First Lady of France slapping her husband, Emmanuel Macron. Do you have any world leader to world leader marital advice?”, the reporter asked.
“Make sure the door remains closed. That is not good. No, I spoke to him, and he’s fine, they’re fine. Two really good people I know very well. And, I don’t know what that was all about, but, I know him very well, and they’re fine”, President Donald Trump of the US responded.
A Facebook user with an account handle, International Marxist said: “Emmanuel Macron is a domestic violence victim under extreme control by his wife.
Macron’s wife’s children are older than he is. Macron got together with his wife when he was 15 years old and she was his 39 year old married schoolteacher.
Macron as a child was groomed and under the control of this adult with authority over him, and this domination and mental control of him by his wife has never stopped.
Is Macron mentally and emotionally fit to lead? Get Macron out of power immediately and into a shelter and therapy to finally escape from the abuse that has had a grip on his mind and life since his childhood!!
Get Macron the emotional and mental help that he desperately needs instead of in power as a pawn of the ambition of his controller: his abusive predator wife!!”.
CNN reported that; “A quick shove. A split-second clip that would have dominated US news for days aired in France for just 24 hours and then it was gone.
When a viral video appeared over the weekend showing French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, pushing his face just as he was about to deplane during a visit to Vietnam, not a single French newspaper front page featured it the next morning.
Was it because Prime Minister François Bayrou was speaking about the financial efforts the French would have to make under his soon-to-be-unveiled budget? Or that people were detained recently in a string of crypto kidnappings?
More likely, it highlighted a cultural divide between France and the Anglosphere – a long-standing French belief that politicians’ private lives should be protected.
This secret-keeping tradition kept President François Mitterrand’s illegitimate daughter hidden for years. It has also meant a delicate silence around other controversial personal lives, like Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s notorious womanizing.
The former International Monetary Fund chief’s arrest on sexual assault charges in New York in 2011 abruptly ended his political career just as he was emerging as a leading presidential contender.
The same unwritten rules surfaced in 2014, when Closer magazine published photos of former President François Hollande – disguised by a motorcycle helmet – arriving at the apartment of a friend, where he was reportedly meeting actress Julie Gayet.
At the time, Gayet was his girlfriend, even though he still had a live-in partner, Valérie Trierweiler.
The story caused a stir, but Hollande’s office condemned the “invasion of privacy,” and the media soon backed off.
At a press conference, Hollande faced only one question about his personal life and deflected it with the remark, “private affairs are dealt with in private,” silencing the throng of French journalists and leaving foreign reporters stunned.
So when the video of the Macrons began circulating, the initial media response was swift but short-lived. French outlets played the clip on loop, dissected it briefly, and moved on”.
Abc news gives some details why Emmanuel Macron was in Vietnam by reporting that “French President Emmanuel Macron called on Monday for closer cooperation between Vietnam and France in an increasingly unstable global landscape as he visited Hanoi as part of a Southeast Asia tour focused on strengthening regional ties.
Macron emphasized the need for “an order based on law” at a time of ”both great imbalance and a return to power-driven rhetoric and intimidation.” He next heads to Indonesia and Singapore.
The visit comes amid trade tensions, with the US threatening steep tariffs on goods from Europe. Vietnamese imports to the United States were hit with 46% tariffs — among the highest rates applied to any country — in April.
Macron signed more than a dozen agreements on defense, nuclear power and trade, including one with the Vietnamese budget airline company VietJet and Airbus to buy 20 A330-900 planes.
He paid tribute at a Hanoi war memorial to those who fought the French colonial rulers and met with his counterpart Luong Cuong, as well as Communist Party general secretary To Lam.
Macron also visited the 11th century Temple of Literature in the heart of the Vietnamese capital.
France and Vietnam’s “sovereignty partnership” could be the central axis of France’s approach in the Indo-Pacific, Macron said.
France has demonstrated its “desire to defend international maritime law” when it deployed the French carrier strike group in the South China Sea in early 2025, Macron said.
China and Vietnam have long had a maritime agreement governing the Gulf of Tonkin, but have been locked in competing claims in the South China Sea over the Spratly and Paracel Islands and maritime areas.
Macron said France would also support Vietnam in key sectors, including critical minerals, high-speed rail, civil nuclear energy and aerospace, and focus on partnering with the Asian nation to help it transition away from dirty coal power while adding new capacity in renewable energy and civil nuclear power.
This is Macron’s first trip to Vietnam since he took office in 2017″.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that President Emmanuel Macron’s parents originally thought he was seeing Brigitte’s daughter, but they were astonished and embarrassed to find out their son had feelings for the teacher, Brigitte who is currently 72 years old and they immediately sent Emmanuel to Paris.
Brigitte who is 25 years older than Emmanuel, was already married for over three years before he was born in December 1977.