Awkward moment Emmanuel Macron left hanging by his wife as they arrive in UK for state visit

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife do not have much luck when it comes to disembarking planes for public events.

You'll all likely remember May's infamous 'slapgate' which occurred when the Macrons landed in Vietnam as part of an official tour of South Asia, when officials opened the door of the French presidential plane at the exact moment in which first lady Brigitte Macron, 72, appeared to grab her husband's face.

Despite the president's best attempts to recover the situation after realising he was being filmed by TV cameras, the moment, of course, went viral online – leading to plenty of speculation about the state of the couple's relationship.

And unfortunately for the Macrons, they've been filmed disembarking a plane, appearing rather frosty once again.

The first lady preferred the jet's handrail to her husband's hand (GONZALO FUENTES/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The couple landed at RAF Northolt earlier today as part of a visit with the UK's King Charles III and were greeted on the tarmac by the Prince and Princess of Wales as well as numerous officials.

Given May's debacle, TV cameras were of course focused on the cabin and while there wasn't a repeat of 'Le Slap' this time around, another awkward moment between the couple was caught on camera.

After disembarking from the aircraft, President Macron, 47, held out a hand to his wife as she descended to the steps – only to be ignored in favour of the handrail.

This meant that Macron was left with his hand hanging awkwardly in the air for a couple of seconds as Brigitte made her way down the stairs before turning to greet William and Kate.

Watch the clip below to see the moment for yourself:

Of course, this doesn't necessarily suggest the couple are on the rocks, as it's perfectly possible that Brigitte was simply concentrating on not falling - and therefore didn't notice her husband's outstretched hand.

Or perhaps neither Mrs nor Mr Macron are fans of flying?

Meanwhile, the couple have since attempted to play down speculation over the state of their marriage, with Macron later suggesting the 'shove' was simply a moment of playfulness which had been taken out of context.

"There’s a video showing me joking and teasing my wife and somehow that becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe, with people even coming up with theories to explain it," he said of the clip, before appearing to make fun of the moment during their trip to Jakarta, Indonesia.

The couple are in the UK to visit King Charles III (Benjamin Cremel - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

However, the French president's light-hearted take on the situation wasn't one which was shared by several body language experts, with Judi James suggesting the interaction didn't appear playful.

“I would not describe the gesture we saw from inside the plane as one of 'play' as has been claimed," she alleged to MailOnline.

“Pushing your partner in the face with your hand so hard their head reels to the side and they need to put a hand out to keep balance, especially with what looks like an extra ‘shove’ at the end of the contact, should not be normalised by calling it ‘fun’ just to save political face.”