French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron have been making global headlines recently, and unfortunately, it is not for the best of reasons.
Now, it seems that an expert has stepped in to explain their interpretation of the spat between the couple.
Keep reading to learn more.
If you did not pay attention to the international news cycle recently, you may have missed a major event involving the current President of France, Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron.
In a video which went viral, Brigitte was seen ‘slapping’ or ‘pushing’ Macron’s face just as the doors for their plane opened as they arrived for an official visit to Hanoi, Vietnam.
During the moment, the 72-year-old is not seen entirely, with only her arm extended out into frame as she pushes the President’s face. She places both hands on him and seems to give him a hefty shove.
Macron, who was in full view of the cameras, tried to play it cool in front of the media.
The couple then began to descend the stairs, and Brigitte seemed to snub her husband’s gesture to hold his arm and walked separately.
The 47-year-old French politician has since then spoken out about the incident, saying it was a harmless ‘joke’ between the couple, which has been blown out of proportion.
However, a professional lip reader has since then claimed that this might not be true. According to the expert, the body language displayed by Brigitte when she descended the stairs points to it being a more serious spat than they are letting on.
“As the aircraft door opens, President Macron is seen turning toward Brigitte. In an unexpected moment, she pushes him in the face. Realising the door is already open and staff are witnessing the interaction, Emmanuel appears uncomfortable and quickly raises his hand with a forced ‘Hi,’” the lip reader said to The Express.
In the video, you can also see a crew member who ‘visibly flinches, brushing her hand through her hair in discomfort.’
Macron tries to handle the situation by acting calmly and then ‘steps closer to Brigitte before composing himself and crossing to the other side,’ the analyst went on. “Moments later, he signals for her to follow him with ‘Let’s go’.”
The President then seems to thank the pilot and waves to the media, which according to the expert, was him trying to regain his composure in front of the world’s media. However, as they began to descend the stairs, ‘things turn icy again.’
“He offers his arm; she ignores it, clinging to the railing instead. As she passes, she appears to mutter, and lipread as ‘Dégage, espèce de loser’, translated in English ‘Stay away, you loser’,” the lipreader said.
Macron reportedly responded with, “Essayons, s’il te plaît,” translating to, “Let’s try, please?”
However, Brigitte allegedly replied with a curt, “Non.”
The lipreader shared that, “His closing expression, and the phrase lipread as ‘Je vois’ translated in english ‘I see,’ says it all.
Brigitte Macron, who is 25 years older than her husband met him when he was a pupil at high school where she taught French.
The pair married in 2007 before Macron pursued his career in politics.
While the expert has claimed that the exchange was heated, President Macron is firmly stating it was anything but.
Speaking to the media, he clarified, “We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife.”
He shrugged off the seriousness of it and stated that the media frenzy around the moment made it seem like it was some ‘sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.’
“Everyone needs to calm down,” he stated.
An official for Elysee also downplayed the incident, saying it was not serious at all.
“It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around. It’s a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists,” they said.
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