A slap caught on camera during a state visit to Vietnam was easy to dismiss when the Macrons called it playful. But journalist Florian Tardif’s new book reframes that moment entirely — and puts Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani at the center of it. The claim: Brigitte Macron slapped Emmanuel Macron after allegedly finding flirty messages between the French president and Farahani on his phone. Both Farahani’s representatives and Brigitte’s camp have denied the allegations. The story, however, is not going away.
What the Book Actually Claims
Florian Tardif, a French journalist, published a book in 2025 alleging that the now-infamous slap — filmed during the Macrons’ official visit to Vietnam — was not the affectionate gesture the presidential couple insisted it was. According to Tardif’s account, Brigitte discovered messages on Emmanuel Macron’s phone that she interpreted as flirtatious exchanges with Golshifteh Farahani, the Iranian-French actress known internationally for films like Golshifteh Farahani career and films.
The Macrons’ official response at the time leaned into warmth: two people in a long, unconventional marriage sharing a private moment in public. Tardif’s version replaces that reading with something considerably less cinematic. Representatives for both Farahani and Brigitte Macron have denied the claims in the book, but neither denial has landed with enough weight to close the conversation.
Who Is Golshifteh Farahani — and Why Her Name Matters Here
Golshifteh Farahani is not a tabloid footnote. Born in Tehran in 1983, she built one of the most remarkable careers of any actress to cross from Iranian cinema into Hollywood — she appeared alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in *Body of Lies* (2008), starred in Jim Jarmusch’s *Paterson* (2016), and took on a lead role in the Apple TV+ series *Tehran*. She left Iran in 2009 after facing legal pressure from Iranian authorities over her work with Western productions, eventually settling in France and becoming a French citizen. She is, by any measure, a serious cultural figure — which is exactly what makes her name appearing in this story feel charged rather than incidental.
The Macron-Farahani connection, if any real one exists beyond the book’s claims, has not been verified by any independent reporting. But her profile — Iranian exile, French cultural figure, internationally recognized actress — adds a layer to the story that a purely domestic French scandal would not have. Golshifteh Farahani Iranian exile France
The Macron Marriage and Why This Keeps Getting Talked About
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron’s age gap — he is 47, she is 72 — has never stopped being a reference point in French political conversation. They met when he was a 15-year-old student at a school where she taught drama; she eventually left her husband and three children to be with him. When Macron became France’s youngest-ever president in 2017, their relationship went from local curiosity to global talking point almost overnight.
That history means any crack in the image of their marriage lands harder than it would for a more conventional political couple. The Vietnam slap circulated widely not because political violence was suspected but because the body language felt unscripted — and unscripted Macron moments are rare. Tardif’s book gives that footage a new caption, and whether or not the allegations hold up, the story has already done what books like this tend to do: it made people look at that video again. Emmanuel Macron Brigitte relationship history
