The images that went around the world / The reason why Brigitte Macron hit the French president is revealed

2026-05-13 15:44:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The images that went around the world / The reason why Brigitte Macron hit the

Florian Tardif, journalist at Paris Match and author of the book "Un couple (presque) parfait" (A couple (almost) perfect), declared on RTL this Wednesday that the "moment of complicity" sold by the Élysée in the spring of 2025 in Vietnam was in reality a "disagreement" about the "platonic" relationship of the head of state with the 42-year-old Franco-Iranian actress.

Its publisher, Albin Michel, promised an "investigation" into the "forbidden areas" of the presidential couple, Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, with "unpublished scenes" and "numerous evidence". Would this book reveal the secret of the famous and mysterious "slap" incident involving the First Lady giving her husband a plane in the spring of 2025? Appearing on RTL radio this Wednesday, May 13, to present his book, "Un couple (presque) parfait", "A (almost) perfect couple", Paris Match journalist Florian Tardif claimed to be able to give his readers the true version of the story. "It is a version that I have verified. Everything in the book is fact, fact and nothing but fact", he swore.

In a viral video filmed in Vietnam in May 2025, Brigitte Macron raised both hands in her husband's face as the door of the presidential plane opened. Had she just hit the head of state? He denied any "family quarrel", insisting that the fight was simply a "moment of intimacy". Florian Tardif dismissed this account: "In fact, it was a couple scene". According to the journalist, who has followed the Macron couple since the 2017 elections and is one of the journalists accredited to the Élysée Palace, the Élysée now "regrets" the lack of transparency, "simply because they could have shown at that moment that they were a couple, a real couple, not a perfect one".

Florian Tardif claims that the President of the Republic maintained a "platonic" relationship with Golshifteh Farahani "for several months", writing her "messages that went quite far", such as "I find you very beautiful". "That's what those close to him have told me, and that's what I'm saying this morning", he explains. These messages led to "tensions" within the couple, culminating in a heated argument on board the presidential plane on the runway at Hanoi airport. The argument was described as "significant". "This private scene became public because there was a misunderstanding on the plane. We thought the argument was over. It wasn't over", concludes the Paris Match journalist, who is also a regular commentator on T18 and TF1/LCI. The Élysée Palace did not respond to requests for comment.