Content Advisory: This article discusses alleged marital conflict, rumors of flirty texts, and a viral physical altercation involving public figures. Reader discretion is advised.
Brigitte Macron’s viral plane moment with French President Emmanuel Macron is getting a fresh explanation, and the new claim is messy.
A new report alleges that France’s first lady was hurt after seeing a flirty text on her husband’s phone from Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani. Representatives for Brigitte have denied the claim, insisting she never checks the president’s phone.
Still, the allegation has dragged the Macrons’ marriage back into public debate, months after footage appeared to show Brigitte slapping or shoving Emmanuel as they stepped off a plane in Vietnam.
Brigitte Macron Allegedly Reacted To Flirty Text
Journalist Florian Tardif claims in his new book, ‘An (Almost) Perfect Couple’, that tension between the Macrons grew after Brigitte allegedly saw a message from Emmanuel to Farahani.
“I find you very pretty,” Macron reportedly wrote, according to the claim.
Reports have suggested Farahani had a “platonic relationship” with the French president for months. But Tardif claims the issue for Brigitte was not only the words themselves.
“What hurt Brigitte was not so much the contents of the message as what it hinted at,” an excerpt reportedly states. The idea of a “possibility,” the book claims, was enough to create tension.
Viral Slap Moment Gets New Scrutiny
The alleged text drama is now being linked to the viral moment from May 2025, when Brigitte appeared to slap or shove Macron’s face as the couple disembarked a plane in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The clip showed the plane door opening before Brigitte’s hand reached toward Macron’s face. The president appeared briefly caught off guard before smiling and waving to the crowd.
As they walked down the stairs, Brigitte also appeared to avoid taking his offered arm.
At the time, Macron dismissed the reaction and said the couple had only been joking.
“We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” he said, adding that the moment was being inflated into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.”
He continued, “People are saying all sorts of nonsense. Everyone needs to calm down.”
A source close to the president also tried to downplay the clip, saying it was a private moment of the couple decompressing before the start of the trip.
Brigitte’s Team Denies Phone Claim
Brigitte’s representative has denied the new account, saying the first lady rejected it directly.
“Brigitte Macron categorically denied this account directly to the author on March 5th, specifying that she never looks at her husband’s mobile phone,” the representative said.
Farahani has also denied rumors of a romance with Macron.
“I think that there is a lack of love for some people and they need to create romances like this to fill [the void],” she said in March.
The denial has not stopped the story from spreading, partly because the plane clip already became one of the most widely discussed political marriage moments of the year.
Brigitte Says Public Life Has Changed Her
Brigitte has also spoken recently about the emotional toll of life as first lady.
She said the role has exposed her to the “darkness of the world, the stupidity, the wickedness,” and admitted she has been “sometimes sadder than I have ever been.”
“Before, I had a normal life, children, a job, ups and downs, like everyone else,” she said. “Here, these ten years have passed so quickly. They have been so intense.”
She added, “Sometimes I find it hard to see the blue sky. I have moments of pessimism that I didn’t have before.”
The new text claim may be denied, but it has still reopened the question that followed the viral plane clip: what was really going on between Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron in that moment?
