Emmanuel Macron speaks out after footage showed wife 'pushing him in face'

Emmanuel Macron has spoken out to address the viral video which appears to show his wife getting handsy with him as they touched down in Vietnam.

Footage of the French President's arrival in the country on Monday (26 May) morning has been circulating online, as it captured the moment his wife Brigitte seemingly shoved him in the face.

The couple were disembarking a plane after travelling to Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, for the first leg of a Southeast Asia tour.

As the aircraft door opens, Macron appears to be in discussion with his wife, who is out of shot, as he stands in the doorway.

Seconds later, Brigitte is seen pressing both of her hands across her husband's face before apparently pushing him - only for the President to realise a host of cameras captured the entire thing.

The footage of Emmanuel Macron being pushed in the face has gone viral (BBC)

He quickly regains his composure, flashes a smile at the waiting press and then moves out of view. President Macron then emerges from the jet once again, before Brigitte trails out behind him.

He lingers at the top of the stairway, offering his wife his arm as they descend - but the First Lady of France gives him the cold shoulder, instead opting to cling onto the railing.

Take a look at the footage here:

According to French media, the Elysee initially denied the authenticity of the footage, before eventually deciding to try and downplay it instead.

Sources are said to have told outlets that it was merely a 'moment in which the President and his wife were unwinding by goofing about one last time before the start of the trip,' CNN reported.

In wake of the footage going viral, Macron himself spoke out about what was really going on in the clip.

He said the interaction with Brigitte was just playful banter, which has now been blown way out of proportion. Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, Macron said: "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 then confirmed the footage was genuine amid the speculation about its authenticity.

Brigitte appeared to then snub her husband as he offered her his arm to descend the aircraft steps (BBC)

The President added: "The videos are all real, and yes, sometimes people tamper with them, but people are attributing all kinds of nonsense to them."

He dismissed claims that it was some kind of 'domestic incident', instead telling the media 'it was nothing'.

Macron and Brigitte first met when he was just 15-years-old and a pupil at La Providence High School in Amiens - which is where his future wife worked.

Speaking to Paris Match back in 2016, Brigitte revealed: "At the age of 17, Emmanuel said to me 'whatever you do, I will marry you'."

The French President said the clip simply shows him and his wife 'teasing' one another (LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the 2018 documentary Brigitte Macron: A French Novel, Macron’s parents told Brigitte to stop seeing him until he turned 18 and sent the future president off to Paris to finish his schooling, but the pair kept in touch.

In his book and political manifesto, Revolution, Macron said their relationship began as 'a love often clandestine, often hidden, misunderstood by many before imposing itself.'

Brigitte divorced her first husband in 2006, marrying Macron months later.

He has previously slammed critics who have criticised their age gap, saying: "If I was 20 years older than my wife, nobody would think for a single second that we couldn't be legitimately together.

"It's because she is 20 years older than me that a lot of people say, 'This relationship can't be tenable, it can't be possible'."