Content note: this story mentions gender-based violence and self-harm

Former first lady Fabiola Yañez painted a picture of a lonely, isolated life of psychological violence and constant infidelity during Alberto Fernández’s presidency in an interview published Saturday night.

On Tuesday, she reported Fernández for gender-based violence after chats and photos of her with bruises were reported by the press. Fernández was indicted over the allegations on Friday. He said the accusations were “false” and added that “what I’m now being accused of never happened” in a brief statement on Tuesday.

Yañez said she experienced controlling behavior, threats and ultimatums that she described as “psychological terrorism.”

“[Fernández] spent two months threatening me every other day, saying that if I did this or that he would kill himself,” she told Argentine outlet Infobae in an interview in Madrid, where she lives with her and Fernández’s two-year-old son, Francisco, and her mother.

She said that during Fernández’s 2019-2023 term in office, she was “always alone” at the Quinta de Olivos presidential residence, and that even before that, she spent all her time at the couple’s apartment because Fernández “harassed” her, constantly demanding to know what she was doing. 

“I had to be on my phone, because if I wasn’t, it was as if I was doing whatever,” she said. “As time went by, I started to stay shut off in my flat more and more.” 

She said the worst of the alleged violence happened during the final year of Fernández’s presidency. At first she would leave the main house at Olivos and spend the night at the guest house, but decided to move there permanently in July 2023. That’s when the couple separated, she said, but the government did not want the news to be reported.

“If I left Olivos, it would’ve been a scandal,” she said. While she was there, she claimed, Fernández would burst into both the house and the bedroom, without knocking, to see what she was doing.

On Thursday, two pictures of a bruised Yañez were published by the press, along with screen shots allegedly showing chats between the two. The conversation appears to show Yañez sending photos of her injuries to Fernández and accusing him of beating her for three days straight. The former president’s chat responses do not deny her accusations. The Herald is not publishing the material for privacy reasons.

In the interview, she said she could not speak about the violence allegations because of the ongoing legal investigation. However, she said that seeing the photos left her feeling “destroyed” for her son, and that she wishes they hadn’t been published. “I would never have wanted that kind of photo of me to come out. What woman wants to see herself like that in all the TV shows and global media?”

Infidelity

In addition to Yañez’s pictures, videos were published of a female comedian and TV personality, apparently filmed by Fernández at the Casa Rosada. In one, they appear to be flirting, while in another, she says she is writing him a “love letter.”

The former first lady said she found the videos on a cell phone the former couple used to play their son relaxing music. Around a year ago, the toddler was using the phone when Yañez’s mother saw something odd on it. “There was a picture of a naked woman. It had obviously been sent to [Fernández]. I started looking and then I saw those videos,” she said.

Infidelity, according to Yañez, was constant. “By that point I was numb, because this happened all the time,” she said. When she confronted him about the photo, he allegedly responded that it was a joke.

Not all the material reached her by accident, she added. She claims to have found multiple nude photos of famous women on his phone — and said that the women themselves frequently sent her the material. 

“I’ve protected this man from so many things. Those videos that surfaced the other day are nothing compared to the things he’s done,” Yañez said.

Yañez said she asked for help from the now-defunct Women, Genders and Diversity Ministry However, she claims the response was limited to telling her to go to the ministry in person, something which would have been impossible without alerting the press. “Now they have come out to defend themselves when they didn’t defend me,” she added. She did not mention names. However, former Minister Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta posted on social media on Tuesday that she was unaware of Yañez’s situation.

According to Yañez, the former president blamed her for losing the 2021 legislative elections. Pictures of a party allegedly held at Olivos for her birthday in 2020, in violation of COVID-19 quarantine measures, were leaked the following year, ahead of the vote.

Fernández has not spoken publicly about Yañez’s accusations and the indictment against him. He gave an interview to Spanish newspaper El País, but at the time of writing, it had not been published.

If you have been struggling, call 0800-999-0091 for mental health support and information, 24 hours a day, all over Argentina, or 135 for the Greater Buenos Aires Suicide Attention Center, for free, between 8 and 12 a.m. If you are suffering domestic or gender-based violence, call the 144 line any time of day for free and anonymous assistance.