In a new podcast interview, American Idol alum Gabby Barrett responded to claims that her marriage is ruining her career.
Gabby Barrett, 23, wed Cade Foehner a year after they both competed on American Idol in 2018. Now Gabby is defending her decision to prioritize her marriage over her career.
Gabby and Cade finished their American Idol run in 3rd and 4th place, respectively. Cade chose to forego pursuing his own music career in favor of supporting Gabby with hers. Cade, who backs up his wife on guitar for all of her performances, told Jinger and Jeremy Vuolo on The Hope We Hold podcast in 2020 that he believes it is his responsibility to support his wife and her gifts.
“I really do feel like the reason I went to American Idol, the reason I was able to do music was to go get my wife. I believe with all my heart that I have my place beside her and supporting her and honoring her in this music,” Cade said. “I feel like my gifts … hold her up well – to be the husband and to get up under your wife and do everything you can to honor her.”
In a new episode of Unexpected with Hannah Love podcast, Barrett told Hannah Mooney, wife of Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney, that she honors her husband in return.
One way that Gabby shows love and respect for her husband is by setting boundaries in her career. Those boundaries have cost the singer some big opportunities, but she made it clear that her husband is one of her main priorities.
“There’s been large song opportunities that have come in for me to duet on or be a part of, and something between myself and my husband… I respect him a ton, and I listen to what he has to say, and I think he deserves that,” Barrett told Hannah, clarifying that the duets she has turned down included “intimate” wording that could make her husband uncomfortable.
“I respect him and love him so much that I am not going to jeopardize my marriage to do a duet with somebody,” she said. “I care about this a lot more and I pray and hope and know that God will bless my efforts in trying to keep my marriage straight and not… just for a duet or whatever it is.”
Gabby Barrett added that she has been told that her decision to prioritize her marriage is ruining her career, but she is standing strong and putting her marriage first.
“I have tons of people say that say to me, or have texted me, or have commented about me and said, ‘She’s ruining her career by talking about these things, and by X, Y and Z,” Barrett said. “Because I treasure a Godly marriage over anything the world could offer….”
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Gabby’s second studio album, Chapter & Verse, is set to be released in February. She is also due to give birth to her third child, a daughter, the same month. She and Foehner are already parents to daughter Baylah (2 1/2) and son Augustine (1).
See Gabby Barrett’s podcast interview with Hannah Love below.