A new book by French journalist Florian Tardif has reignited one of the most discussed political scandals in Europe. Tardif, a journalist from Paris Match, claims that French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped by his wife Brigitte during a foreign trip last year.
The incident was caught on camera as the couple were about to get off a plane in Hanoi, Vietnam in May last year.
What the Book Says
Tardif’s book, An (Almost) Perfect Couple, was released on May 13. In an interview with RTL France, Tardif claimed the slap followed a tense discovery on Macron’s phone.
Brigitte, 73, reportedly read a message from Iranian-born actress Golshifteh Farahani. The first lady reportedly found a message for the 42-year-old actress on her husband’s device moments before the incident.
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Farahani, a former student of Macron, is a well-known critic of the Tehran regime. According to Tardif, Macron told Farahani in one message: “I find you very pretty.”
The journalist claims that the two maintained a “platonic relationship” for several months.
An excerpt from the book, serialized in Paris Match, describes the emotional impact on Brigitte.
“What hurt Brigitte was not so much the content of the message as what it suggested: the possibility… nothing tangible or really reprehensible, but the very idea… was enough,” the New York Post excerpt quoted.
A friend of the French first lady is quoted as saying: “She saw how she was erased.”
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The claims made in the book remain unverified.
Golshifteh Farahani’s most famous film is About Elly (2009), directed by Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi. Her larger commercial successes in Hollywood include Extraction (2020) and Extraction 2 (2023), Body of Lies (2008) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).
Denial
Both Brigitte Macron and Golshifteh Farahani categorically rejected these claims. Brigitte’s representatives categorically denied this on May 13.
“Brigitte Macron categorically denied this account directly to the author on March 5, specifying that she would never look at her husband’s mobile phone,” said a representative of Le Parisien.
Farahani has also repeatedly denied any romantic relationship with Macron.
“I think there’s a lack of love for some people and they need to create romances like that to fill (the void),” Le Point said in March.
What Macron’s team said then
Macron’s team moved quickly to contain the damage when video of the slap first emerged. They initially suggested that the footage may have been created by AI. They later insisted it was nothing more than a playful exchange between the pair.
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“It was a moment when the president and his wife had a final joke before the trip began,” said a close aide.
Golshifteh Farahani’s Past Relationships
Emmanuel Macron controversy aside, Golshifteh Farahani has kept her personal life mostly private. Living in exile in France, Spain and Portugal, her romantic history has attracted intense media interest due to her European cinema.
Between 2012 and 2014, Farahani was in a publicized relationship with French actor and filmmaker Louis Garrel. French tabloids followed the couple closely during this period. They collaborated on screen in the 2015 French drama Two Friends, which Garrel also directed.
Farahani’s first marriage was to French-Iranian architect and film producer Amin Mahdavi. They married in 2003 and separated in 2011 after she settled in Paris after a permanent exile from Iran.
In 2015, she married Australian psychologist Christos Dorje Walker, a former Buddhist monk. The couple moved to Ibiza to avoid media attention. They divorced in 2017.
