French President Emmanuel Macron went viral on Monday after being ‘slapped’ by his wife while deboarding from a flight. The incident took place moments after the duo landed in Vietnam for the first leg of a southeast Asia tour. Élysée Palace has since attempted to downplay the incident — initially calling it fake before backtracking to dub it “banal teasing” between a couple. Macron later told reporters that the couple — married since 2007 after meeting at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher — were simply joking around.

The brief, awkward exchange was caught on camera a split second after Macron stepped out of the plane at Hanoi Airport. Brigitte Macron can be seen reaching out to place both hands on the President’s face and pushing away in a quick movement. Macron for his part appears to be momentarily startled before regaining his composure. He can be seen waving to the welcoming delegation as his wife emerges from the plane and the duo descend the steps to the tarmac.

Social media users however came down heavily against Brigitte Macron — deeming it an ‘unacceptable’ turn of events. Others insisted that the President had been furious and ’embarrassed’ by the incident, and accused his wife of “domestic abuse”.

In subsequent images, Macron and his wife appeared at the top of the stairs. He offered an arm but she didn’t take it. They walked down the carpeted stairs side by side. Eagle-eyed netizens also zoomed in on his close-fisted hands and stiff demeanor to insist that the two were engaged in a dispute.

According to FranceInfo, the President’s entourage had put the matter into perspective as a “moment of complicity” between Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, and termed it a a banal “squabble”.

“It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip, playfully teasing each other. It didn’t take more to give conspiracy theorists something to feed on,” a source told the publication.

The president later confirmed this version of events and denied that it was a “domestic scene”. He also reiterated that the video was true but insisted that it was being blown out of proportion with false claims.

“My wife and I are arguing and joking…I am surprised that this video has become a global catastrophe ,” he reportedly said.