‘Emmanuel Macron was slapped by wife after she caught him flirting with Iranian-French actress,’ claims new book

French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte Macron “lost her temper” and slapped him allegedly after discovering a flirty exchange of messages between him and Iranian-born actress Golshifteh Farahani, according to a new book.

The incident that took place last year during Macron’s state visit to Vietnam was caught on cameras, triggering a massive controversy.

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Macron had later clarified that the incident was blown out of proportion and that he was “joking” with his wife.

However, the book titled An (almost) perfect couple by French journalist Florian Tardif claims that Brigitte “lost her temper” on the plane after discovering flirty messages on Macron’s phone from the Iranian-origin actress.

Tardif alleged that even though the relationship between Macron and Farahani was “platonic”, some exchanges — which the journalist said were forwarded to him by people close to Macron — “went quite far.”

According to Tardif, a message from the actress sent to Macron read: “I find you very attractive.” To this, the French journalist claimed, Macron responded – “I find you very pretty.”

Moments before the couple was to disembark from their plane in Vietnam, Brigitte came across a text from the actress and what happened next was seen by the whole world.

“This led to tensions within the couple, which resulted in this private scene becoming public,” Tardif told RTL Radio.

While Brigitte has not spoken about the incident publicly, the clarification from Macron wasn’t enough to stop US President Donald Trump from taking pot-shots at him.

In April this year, Trump had claimed that Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte Macron, “treats him extremely badly” and that the French President was still “recovering from the right to the jaw”.