Emmanuel Macron touched down in Hanoi one Sunday evening last May to kick off a tour of Southeast Asia in a bid to present France as a reliable alternative to China and the United States. But before he had even stepped off the plane, the trip was derailed by images of his wife appearing to slap him across the face. The couple played down the scandal that followed, saying they were only joking around. But again the crisis has flared up in recent days with claims the first lady was provoked by her husband talking to another woman . French journalist Florian Tardif claims in his new book that Mr Macron had maintained a “platonic relationship” with the exiled Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani which, he claimed, veered into flirty texts and “led to tensions with the couple, which resulted in this private scene becoming public”.…