French President Emmanuel Macron has been drawn into fresh controversy after a new book claimed that his wife, Brigitte Macron, slapped him during an official foreign trip last year after allegedly seeing flirty messages on his phone linked to an Iranian-born actress.The claims are made in journalist Florian Tardif’s book “An (Almost) Perfect Couple”, which suggests that tensions within the couple escalated after Brigitte saw messages allegedly sent between Emmanuel Macron and actress Golshifteh Farahani during a trip to Vietnam in May last year.The incident is said to have happened as the couple were getting ready to leave their plane in Hanoi. Cameras later showed Brigitte pushing the president, and the video went viral online.According to extracts cited by French newspaper Le Parisien, Brigitte had allegedly read a message on her husband’s phone from Farahani moments before the public exchange. One of messages allegedly included the line: “I find you very pretty,” said to have been sent by President Macron.Journalist Florian Tardif claimed in an interview that the exchanges were linked to a “platonic relationship” between the president and the actress. “I find you very pretty,” President Macron told Farahani, in one of the messages, according to Tardif, whose book, “An (Almost) Perfect Couple,” was published Wednesday.He further said: “The French president had a platonic love affair with the actress for several months.”According to the book, the situation created tension inside the presidential marriage and contributed to the “slapping” moment on the aircraft steps that went viral.However, the Élysée (Official residence of the president of France in Paris) has rejected the claims. A representative for Brigitte Macron dismissed the allegations and insisted she would never check her husband’s phone.“Brigitte Macron categorically denied this account directly to the author on March 5th, specifying that she never looks at her husband’s mobile phone,” a representative told Le Parisien.Golshifteh Farahani, who has long faced rumours about a relationship with the French president, has also denied any romantic involvement.“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 told Le Point in March.The viral footage from Hanoi showed Macron turning towards his wife just as she pushed him in the face. He briefly appeared stunned before regaining composure and greeting cameras.At the time, the Élysée dismissed the incident as light-hearted. A close associate said: “It was a moment when the president and his wife were unwinding one last time before the start of the trip by joking around.”Macron himself later described it as playful behaviour, saying the reaction had been exaggerated into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe”.
