With this book, political journalist Florian Tardif carries out an intimate investigation into Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron. But a few months before the end of the five-year term, this romantic portrait could well serve, more than it harms, a president in search of rehabilitation.
This is the book that all the press, both political and celebrity, have been talking about for three days. Published this Wednesday, May 13 by Albin Michel editions, An (almost) perfect couplesigned Florian Tardif, political journalist at Paris Matchhas already climbed to fifth place in the best sellers on Amazon. The debates it sparks and the revelations it contains ignite social networks, to the point that the president’s entourage came out of its reserve in the media.
And for good reason: in 215 pages, the journalist delivers an investigation with a romantic feel – but firmly anchored in the facts, according to him – devoted to the Macron couple, whom he has observed closely since 2017.
What does the book reveal?
The book opens with the “slap” that Brigitte Macron allegedly dealt to her husband during an official trip to Vietnam in 2025. A scene which intrigued the international press and sowed panic within the press service of the Élysée. Denial, denial of the denial… Multiple contradictory versions… Today, Florian Tardif offers a new version.
“What she understands shocks her. Instinctively, Brigitte replies. His hands leave. At the same movement, the door of the presidential plane opens. Her husband, surprised, gives a slightly awkward smile – one who still believes he can contain the scene, reduce it to almost nothing. It’s already too late.” According to him, this argument broke out following a message received by the president from Golshifteh Farahani.
The rumor had been circulating for a long time in the corridors of Parisian editorial offices. Florian Tardif asserts it in broad daylight: Emmanuel Macron would have maintained a platonic relationship with the Franco-Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani. The Point had also questioned the actress on this subject, in March 2025.
The journalist of Paris Match written without further details: “Everyone who is questioned about this will talk about “simple messages†. “I find you magnificent†– or other similar expressions. †He also mentions the “seductive” character of Emmanuel Macron, the women who would have tried to court him, including an intern at the Élysée in 2020, as well as the jealousy of Brigitte Macron… who would therefore have jostled her husband when leaving the presidential plane during of their arrival in Hanoi, after he received a message from the Franco-Iranian actress.
But the work is not limited to these intimate revelations nor to the rumors already known. I It also traces the influence of Brigitte Macron on her husband’s candidacy in 2017 and in 2022, the way in which she would be “the only one who can change his mind” in politics, the evolution of their relationships between the first and second five-year terms, their intimate functioning, or even the link between the development of the latter and the success of the president’s mandate.
Florian Tardif thus reports an exchange between the president and Pierre-Olivier Costa, known as POC, who was chief of staff to the First Lady for more than six years. « [Le président :] ‘’Brigitte must be happy. If she is bored, if she feels useless, if, in the evening, when I come home, she tells me that she is unhappy, I will not hold on.” He pauses. And concludes, like a dreaded evidence: ‘’And I will miss this five-year term.” He will fail. HAS” A confidence which alone sums up the thesis of the book: the political trajectory of the president would be inseparable from the intimate balance of his couple.
Why is this book coming out now?
The end of a presidential reign is often accompanied by political books. François Hollande had A president shouldn’t say that… by Fabrice Lhomme and Gérard Davet; Emmanuel Macron will therefore have An (almost) perfect couple. A bold choice on the part of the author, who chooses to focus his review book on the intimate rather than the political. A few months before the end of the five-year term, highlighting the president’s love for his wife could well depoliticize the results of a decade of power, especially as Emmanuel Macron takes care of his stature on the international scene and is already gently preparing, after 2027.
In his foreword, Florian Tardif explains his choice of angle as follows: “We cannot understand Emmanuel without knowing Brigitte. And vice versa. HAS” From this follows the central question of his work: “How did this relationship guide the exercise of power? HAS”
If some journalists consider it unethical to investigate the intimate relationships of political figures, Florian Tardif denies it: “On this matter of public interest, conducting an investigation is fully legitimate. The walls of private life are not those of the Élysée. And at no time does this story claim to cross this border. The point of view of those concerned has been integrated. […] Evoking their intimacy is not an intrusion here. It’s a different approach to better understand the situation in which France finds itself. HAS” The argument has the merit of clarity; It remains to be seen whether the detail of a text message or a domestic dispute truly concerns the public interest, or whether the border, precisely, has been crossed.
Was this biography authorized by the Élysée?
Let us immediately dispel any doubt: Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron did not grant any interviews to Florian Tardif as part of this investigation. All comments come from sources close to the couple; many remain anonymous, but some have spoken openly, such as former minister Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, close friend of Brigitte Macron, the First Lady’s chief of staff Pierre-Olivier Costa, or even former minister Marlène Schiappa.
We can deduce from this that the couple chose to let things be said, rather than blocking their communication, a sign of an assumed strategy. “Emmanuel Macron like Brigitte Macron have at no time hindered my research, writes Florian Tardif. This acceptance of a form of transparency is progress compared to other periods of our political history. As for the couple’s loyal followers, you will be surprised by the frankness and lucidity they have demonstrated. HAS”
This displayed tolerance, however, knows its limits. The couple’s entourage denied the journalist’s account of the slap in Hanoi and his link with Golshifteh Farahani, as revealed The Parisian go 13 may. “Brigitte Macron categorically denied this story to the author directly, on March 5, specifying that she never looked in her husband’s cell phone.”declared the president’s entourage to Parisiandeploring that this clarification was not published by the author. The remark is not insignificant: if the First Lady contested the story beforehand, we may be surprised that this clarification did not find its place in the work.
Who will benefit An (almost) perfect couple ?
By humanizing the couple, Florian Tardif attacks the Jupiterian stature of the president and makes him, paradoxically, more sympathetic. Scenes of complicity, declarations of love, arguments, doubts, family moments: so many touches which lend a form of tenderness to a man who hardly lets any appear in the exercise of power. The polls confirm this: according to the latest Ipsos BVA-CESI engineering school political barometer-La Tribune SundayEmmanuel Macron receives 75% unfavorable opinions.
This is one of the best-tested methods of political communication: bringing a leader back to his private part means blunting his faults, exposing his faults, and making him, by this detour, more acceptable. Florian Tardif thus restores to Macrons a semblance of ordinary; They would, deep down, just be an (almost) normal couple.
