Bizarre moment Emmanuel Macron is SLAPPED by his wife Brigitte while ‘bickering’ as they got off plane in Vietnam

THIS is the jaw-dropping moment French President Emmanuel Macron is slapped by his wife Brigitte as the pair were "bickering".

Unbelievable footage shows the presidential plane door open to Brigitte's hands on Macron's face as they arrived in Vietnam for the start of a tour of Southeast Asia.

Footage captured on Sunday evening at Hanoi airport show the plane's doors opened to reveal Macron stood inside the aircraft, facing his wife with a stern look.

Within seconds, Brigitte's arms pop into view, with both of them raised to Macron's face in what appears to be a small blow.

Appearing shocked, the French leader immediately notices the doors open and quickly turns to wave at the sea of cameras at the bottom of the plane steps.

The couple then emerge together from the aircraft and walk down the staircase, with Macron extending his arm to his wife.

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But she takes hold of the handrail of the walkway for support instead, potentially due to an explosive argument they could have had inside.

The clip of the fighting couple went viral overnight, with it initially denied by Palais de l'Élysée as being fake.

But sources in the French media later confirmed that the clip is in fact real.

A live feed by the Associated Press also clearly shows the shocking moment.

According to an anonymous source close to the President, the couple were "bickering".

They told BFMTV: "It was a moment when the president and his wife were unwinding one last time before the start of the trip by having a little fun."

The same source added that "it was a moment of complicity" that "wasn't enough to give the conspiracy theorists more to chew" - alluding to the negative media spread by Russia.

The politician was just 15 when he started a relationship with the then mother-of-three, his French literature teacher.

Macron was in Hanoi to begin a week-long tour of Southeast Asia, where he will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.

The French leader has repeatedly been targeted by conspiracy theories and deepfakes.

He previously had to deny "false and fabricated" rumours his wife was born a man, dubbing the transgender claims as being typified misogynistic online attacks on women.

And recently he blasted a fake Russian claim that he had a bag of cocaine on the table when he was pictured on his way to Kyiv with Keir Starmer and Germany's Friedrich Merz.

Pro-Russian social media accounts initiated the cocaine conspiracy theory - which spread rapidly online.

One account posted on X: "Macron, Starmer and Merz caught on video on their return from Kiev. A bag of white powder on the table.

"Macron quickly pockets it, Merz hides the spoon. No explanation given."

Even Russia's foreign ministry even poured petrol on the flames, when its spokesperson Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram that “a Frenchman, an Englishman and a German” had been spotted with cocaine paraphernalia on a train.

She wrote: “The fate of Europe is being decided by utterly (drug) dependent individuals.

"It’s as if the Almighty Himself is lifting the veil on this putrid spectacle."