'Just joking': Macron denies dispute with wife, blames disinformation

French President Emmanuel Macron denied Monday having a domestic dispute with his wife Brigitte after a video appeared to show her shoving his face away when they touched down for a visit to Vietnam, blaming disinformation campaigns for trying to put false meaning on the footage.

The Elysee had been hoping that the visit to Vietnam would showcase France's reach into the Indo-Pacific, but it has been shadowed by the incident which occurred as the doors of the presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi Sunday.

In Hanoi, Brigitte sticks out both her hands and gives her husband's face a shove, according to footage shot by the Associated Press news agency.

The French president appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door. But with most of her body hidden by the aircraft, it is impossible to see his wife's facial expression or body language.

"My wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise," he said.

Now it's "become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories," Macron told reporters.

Macron testily referred to the other incidents, including the images shot on the train to Kiev where some accounts falsely claimed he shared cocaine.

But the object Macron removed from the table when the media entered was a tissue.

Erdogan, meanwhile, was filmed holding the president's finger at a summit.

"None of these are true," Macron said of the videos.

"Everyone needs to calm down," he added.

After the incident in Hanoi, the couple proceeded down the staircase for the official welcome by Vietnamese officials, though Brigitte Macron did not take her husband's arm when he offered it.

The video circulated online, promoted particularly by accounts that are habitually hostile to the French leader.

Macron's office initially denied the authenticity of the images, evoking the possible use of artificial intelligence, before they were confirmed as genuine and Macron responded.

"In these three videos I took a tissue, shook someone's hand and just joked with my wife, as we do quite often. Nothing more," Macron said.

He blamed manipulations on "networks that are quite well-traceable."

He emphasised that all three videos were "completely authentic" but the meanings attached to them were not.