Jackie McGregor: Love in the limelight – a satisfying glimpse behind Cupid’s crafted curtain
A video of the French President’s wife, Brigitte Macron, giving her husband a not so gentle shove in the face, before disembarking a plane, went viral this week, spawning countless memes and analysis of their union.
With a 24-year age gap between Macron and his wife, their different life stages may create friction.
The Macrons played down the incident. The President dismissed it as “joking around.” However, a close-up of his clenched fists after he deplaned, didn’t give the impression of matrimonial fun and frolics.
It’s rare to see anything other than looks of devotion and hand-holding with a couple in the public eye, though high-profile marriages are rarely what they seem. What appears to be all hearts and flowers on the public stage could be a case of daggers drawn in private. Yet we love to buy into the fairy tale.
High-profile romances, whether political, celebrity, or royal, often seem like perfect matches. However, this image is usually carefully crafted by PR agents rather than Cupid.
We the public are invited to admire and believe in the idyllic pictures of marital bliss painted by power couples like the Beckhams. After 25 years of marriage David Beckham is rarely seen in photos without Victoria hanging off him like an appendage, it’s what we have come to expect from their “brand.”
The Beckham brand is heavily intertwined with the image of being a loved-up couple and an extremely close-knit family. They project a vision of domestic bliss. However, rumours suggest there may be trouble in paradise, with reports of a rift between the Beckhams and their son Brooklyn and his wife, whom have been noticeably absent from significant family events, including David’s 50th birthday bash celebrations, fuelling rumours of a feud.
High-profile marriages are often presented as the stuff of fairytales with carefully posed photos and sickly-sweet romantic messages sent to each other via social media. So, there was something smugly satisfying about seeing Macron and his wife having what appeared to be a bit of a domestic in public. Why? In that brief unscripted moment was a dose of reality. We may not be prone to shoving our loved one in the face, but it reminded us even leaders of nations with their riches and motorcades are people just like us who suffer the same relationship tensions we do. There’s a sort of comfort to be found in that.
One couple who go to great lengths to present their relationship as a passionate love story, with adoring photos, nauseating letters and touchy-feely displays of affection, is Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. I don’t believe their saccharine sentiments are genuine for one moment. I imagine if we had a sneak behind closed doors we might see a different story.
In a recent podcast, Meghan spoke about Harry as if they’d just met, sounding like a teenager she enthused, “He’s a fox, if you haven’t noticed. My husband’s very, very, handsome.”
Who talks like that, given her age, seven years of marriage and two children? I know they say that love is blind but all I could think of was Specsavers!