The incident went viral last year prompting speculation of a rift and subsequent denials<\/a> by the couple who insisted that they were just \u201cjoking\u201d. <\/p>\n However a new account suggests that the real reason behind the altercation<\/a> is that the first lady<\/a> was angry after she saw a text by Emmanuel to exiled Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani, says Florian Tardif in Un Couple (Presque) Parfait \u2014 An (Almost) Perfect Couple. <\/p>\n Tardif, a political correspondent at Paris Match magazine, alleges that Mrs Macron, 73, was fearful that her husband, 48, may leave her for the actress after seeing the exchange. <\/p>\n Farahani, 42, has denied rumours that the pair were having an affair when questioned by journalists and has said that their connection was \u201cplatonic\u201d. <\/p>\n The content of the messages are reported to have gone \u201cquite far\u201d and included comments such as \u201cI find you very pretty\u201d, Tardif told RTL radio in interviews promoting his book. <\/p>\n Someone close to the couple told Tardif that Mrs Macron had read a \u201cmessage that she was never meant to read\u201d, which then prompted a \u201cdispute [that was] longer and harsher than usual\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat hurt Brigitte was not so much the contents of the message as what it hinted at: a possibility \u2026 nothing tangible or that could really be denounced but the idea alone \u2026 was enough,\u201d read an extract published in Paris Match. <\/p>\n \u201cShe saw herself being erased,\u201d a friend of the first lady is said to have told the author. <\/p>\n However, a source close to Mrs Macron \u201ccategorically denied\u201d the claims when Tardif interviewed them in March and insisted that she \u201cnever looks into her husband\u2019s phone\u201d, according to Le Parisien. <\/p>\n \u201cEverything in the book is facts, facts and only facts,\u201d Tardif has insisted. <\/p>\n The author has also reportedly interviewed Mrs Macron for the book who said that she was \u201cvery tired\u201d after a difficult flight when asked about the interaction. <\/p>\n \u201dThere was a lot of turbulence during the flight, which stopped me sleeping,\u201d she said. \u201cRight then, I didn\u2019t want to get out [of the aircraft]. He tried to make me laugh. He gave me some water and I pushed him away.\u201d<\/p>\n Farahani told Le Point earlier this year: \u201cI think that there is a lack of love for some people and they need to create romances like this to fill [the void].\u201d<\/p>\n The Independent has contacted representatives for Farahani and Mr and Mrs Macron. <\/p>\n An Elysee official initially played down the moment at the time of the incident last year, saying: \u201cIt was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n Macron later admitted that the couple had been \u201csquabbling\u201d and that the attention to the incident was surprising to him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,\u201d he told reporters at the time. \u201cI\u2019m surprised by it, it turns into some kind of global catastrophe where people are even coming up with theories to explain it. It\u2019s nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[29547,108,6182,242,41073,464,1419,42110,5279],"class_list":{"0":"post-73585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-emmanuel-macron","8":"tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-celebrity","11":"tag-emmanuel-macron","12":"tag-film-industry","13":"tag-horizontal","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-portrait-american-shot","16":"tag-streaming"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116583876799489249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778928646_208_2270960203.jpg\")
(AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Iranian-French](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778928649_350_1258648371.jpg\")
Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani has insisted that her relationship with Macron is ‘platonic’ (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Brigitte](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/macron-shove-new.jpeg\")
Brigitte was seen shoving Emmanuel in the face just before disembarking a plane in Vietnam (Pool)<\/p>\n