The wife of Democratic senator John Fetterman (Pa.) was driven to her "breaking point" by his vocal support of Israel in its war against Hamas, according to a new report.
The lengthy article, from New York, paints Fetterman as a dangerously erratic figure who has alienated those close to him with his surprising political drift towards the right.
"Former and current staffers paint a picture of an erratic senator who has become almost impossible to work for and whose mental-health situation is more serious and complicated than previously reported," the article says.
As Fetterman entered the spotlight during his Senate run in 2022, his wife Gisele, an immigrant from Brazil who entered the U.S. illegally, also drew attention for her outspoken leftism. Fetterman won the race despite suffering a debilitating stroke during the campaign.
His politics later evolved in unexpected directions, to the consternation of those around him. Despite being known initially as a progressive, Fetterman broke with the left on the Israel-Palestine conflict after Hamas' October 7, 2023, assault. He made a high-profile pilgrimage to Mar-A-Lago after President Trump's re-election last year, a move that angered fellow Democrats including his own wife, according to New York's article.
It wasn't the only time that politics put the couple at odds. In the aftermath of October 7, Fetterman's strident backing of Israel alarmed his staff, and his own spouse.
“In early November, just weeks after the attack, Gisele arrived at her husband’s Senate office and, according to a staffer present, they got into a heated argument. ‘They are bombing refugee camps. How can you support this?’ the staffer recalled her saying with tears in her eyes,” New York reported.
“‘That’s all propaganda,’ Fetterman replied.”
According to New York, Fetterman's wife was crushed to find out that his staff were not pushing him to support Israel, but rather, the opposite was true: he was resisting pressure to change his stance. Gisele reportedly texted another staffer and admitted she was at her "breaking point" and asked for help drafting a statement to clearly separate herself from her husband's view.
In addition to sharing details on the alleged tensions in his marriage, the New York article makes a series of shocking claims about Fetterman's mental health.
The report, which is based on current and former staffers, says Fetterman walked into traffic before he was admitted to the hospital for depression in 2023.
In a statement to the magazine, Fetterman and his wife put on a united front, with Fetterman dismissing any notion of a rift as overblown. He acknowledged that his wife "has her own voice" and said it's normal for couples in politics to disagree.
Gisele Fetterman accused one of the article's main sources, Fetterman's former chief of staff Adam Jentleson, of peddling "scary, untrue stories about John’s health" for political gain.
