Gisele Barreto Fetterman Breaks Silence Amid Social Media Speculation

Senator John Fetterman's wife has broken her silence after her abrupt disappearance from social media sparked speculation about her reasons. This week, Gisele Barreto Fetterman deleted her accounts on both Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, leading many social media users to speculate that the move was due to her husband going through what has been perceived as something of a political transformation. Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, was last month accused of throwing Barreto Fetterman under the bus after he spoke about a need to "effectively address" the influx of migrants at the southern border.

Brazilian-born Barreto Fetterman was an undocumented immigrant at one point, having moved to the U.S. with her family at age 7. She got her green card in 2004 and became a U.S. citizen five years later. Over the past several weeks, Barreto Fetterman's social media accounts have also been the target of a flood of negative comments over her husband's unwavering support of Israel amid the country's ongoing conflict with Hamas.

On Tuesday, X user @schizarella announced in a viral post that "Fetterman's wife Gisele deletes all pictures with him on social media," sharing a screenshot of Barreto Fetterman's now-deleted account on the microblogging platform. As of press time, the post has been viewed more than 7.5 million times. Several hours later, the same user shared in a follow-up post that Barreto Fetterman's Instagram account had also vanished.

(L-R) Gisele Barreto Fetterman and John Fetterman are pictured on April 29, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Barreto Fetterman has broken her silence following speculation on her sudden disappearance from social media.

Amid discussions about the factors that may or may not have led to her abrupt social media departure, Barreto Fetterman reactivated her X account and shared a message with her more than 220,000 followers. "I posted several months ago that I would be taking a break from social media," she wrote on Tuesday. "I was bored with it... I am a Pisces... it wasn’t adding anything to my life... but leaving social media is somehow more exhausting than having it?!"

Barreto Fetterman, who has been vocal about her experiences, also addressed criticisms and commented on the nature of discussions surrounding her husband’s political statements. She stated, "You guys really are terrible, respectfully," in a follow-up post. In a previous post, she mentioned feeling minimized by the way people perceive her role as merely the senator's spouse.

On November 17, Barreto Fetterman said in an X post that she was "3 weeks into a social media break that may last another month or forever. PS. treating someone as simply someone’s spouse is insulting and minimizing. PSS. did you know male spouses don’t get treated this way? PSSS. no more cute animal pics for you."

Shooting down any speculation that she stands at odds with Fetterman over the southern border, Barreto Fetterman spoke out in defense of her husband on January 23.

As conservatives, including Donald Trump Jr., have commended Fetterman for speaking out regarding the border and the Middle East, Fetterman has experienced dwindling support among young liberals—more of whom sympathize with Palestine than Israel, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.

Update 1/31/24, 5:15 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional details and background information.