No, French president Emmanuel Macron wasn’t pictured snogging a male friend (sorry)
The viral ‘kissing’ image was fake, and AI generated (X: World War Now/Getty)
Images of the president of France Emmanuel Macron kissing a “gay” male friend onboard a boat have surfaced – but they’re all fake.
His country might be hosting the Olympics right now, but several photos on X/Twitter of Emmanuel Macron, which have been photoshopped to make him appear gay, have somewhat drawn focus away from the sporting spectacle.
Posted on the site by the account @WorldWarNow, the doctored image shows “French president Emmanuel Macron kissing a man and being fruity as hell.”
Putting to one side the mild homophobia surrounding the idea that Macron could be gay, the image of him supposedly kissing his friend is a “screenshot” from a video, and is followed by two more photos of him and a group of friends having fun.
X’s community note feature was quick to clock the first photo as “fake and AI-generated”, before listing some “French newspapers with the actual pictures”, including Paris Match, Délits d’Opinion and Gala.
Paris Match reported on the real images several days ago, which first appeared in celebrity magazine Voici, saying: “France is delirious at the sight of holiday photos of their head of state, in a swimsuit and playing at fighting with his friends.”
The actual, undoctored image, is available below, with the joke caption: “Very happy to see President Macron take on [the Olympic Games], practicing Greco-Roman wrestling during his vacation in Brégançon.”
Although users might have thoughts about how Macron was spending his holiday, he certainly wasn’t snogging any of his mates.
The president is not gay, and has been married to his wife Brigitte since 2007. She has been at the centre of a different conspiracy: that she is transgender, which her husband has had to emphatically denied.
Speaking at an International Women’s Day event in Paris in June, Macron said: “The worst thing is the false information and fabricated scenarios. People eventually believe them and disturb you, even in your intimacy.”
And, as one X user commented under the real photos: “[Macron] is not gay, he’s French.”
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