Influencer Hannah Neeleman is not happy about that viral profile about her tradwife lifestyle!
The mom of eight, commonly known by her handle Ballerina Farm, is part of a group of social media personalities who are “traditional wives” — women who embrace traditional gender roles. They pop out babies and become homemakers who cook, clean, and raise the kids, while their husbands are the sole providers for the family. In other words, Harrison Butker‘s American dream. Not only do they choose this for themselves, they tell everyone else they should be living this way.
Hannah’s life sparked intense debate online for more than a week, thanks to a profile dropped from The Times of London. Why? It painted a very alarming picture of her marriage to wealthy farmer Daniel Neeleman — something far different from what her followers see on her social media accounts! Think glaring red flags all over about her husband!
Related: Former Tradwife Enitza Templeton Talks Lifestyle’s Harsh Realities!
For starters, Hannah was an aspiring ballerina who even got into Juilliard as an undergrad – which is not an easy feat! Per the website, they typically only accept 18 to 26 students per year! And she was one of them! So, you know Hannah was really talented and most likely had a huge career ahead of her if she stuck with it! But during her time in school, she met Daniel. Although Hannah wanted to “date for a year” before they married, that didn’t work for him. She said he wanted “to get married now” — so they did. The couple were engaged a month after their first date, got hitched two months later, and got pregnant with their first child three months afterward. Whoa!
While Hannah insisted both she and Daniel “sacrificed a lot,” it became pretty clear, at least to the journalist’s math, that SHE was the one to give up her ballet dreams to follow a more traditional lifestyle — not him! According to The Times, they moved to a farm in Utah, had date nights once a week, and didn’t have a nanny to help with their 8 kids all because that was what Daniel wanted. What’s even more unsettling about the behind-the-scenes of their life together? Daniel admitted Hannah gets so sick from exhaustion at times that she can’t get out of bed for a week! This happens, and yet he won’t allow her to have a nanny to help with their children! So messed up.
There’s a lot more from there! Hannah also revealed at one point that she gave birth to almost all her kids without pain medication, except for one of them. She only got the epidural that time because Daniel wasn’t there for the delivery. However, she only admitted the last part to the journalist when her husband wasn’t in the room. As if she had to keep it a secret from him! Almost like she knew he would be mad at her — even though childbirth is painful! If she wants an epidural, let her have one! Jeez!
As we said, a lot of red flags about their marriage! We could go on and on! So could social media users! The profile subsequently had many people concerned for Hannah and angry at Daniel for seemingly controlling her, and they weren’t afraid to express those feelings online either!
But now she’s firing back at the criticism and the article. On Wednesday, Hannah posted a video to Instagram in which she slammed the profile for misrepresenting her family and marriage. She said:
“A couple of weeks ago, we had a reporter come into our home to learn more about our family and business. We thought the interview went really well. We were taken [aback] however, when we saw the printed article — which shocked us, and shocked the world by it being an attack on my family and my marriage.”
Hannah argued the piece made it seem like she was “oppressed, with my husband being the culprit.” However, she swears that “couldn’t be further from the truth,” adding:
“Nothing we said in the interview implied this conclusion, which leads me to believe that the angle taken was predetermined. … The greatest day of my life was when Daniel and I were married 13 years ago. Together we have built a business from scratch. We’ve brought eight children into this world, and have prioritized our marriage all along the way. We are co-parents, co-CEOs, co-diaper changers, kitchen cleaners, and decision-makers. We are one. I love him more today than I did 13 years ago.”
Concluding the post, the influencer noted she and Daniel have “many dreams still to accomplish,” like having more kids and opening a farm store together. Hmm. Watch the video (below):
In a follow-up post, Hannah encouraged fans to read her and Daniel’s story in her own words on their website instead. See (below):
Here’s our question though… was Daniel in the room when she said all this? We mean, even in the article itself she only gushed about the life she was living, so this isn’t exactly unexpected. It was the cracks the author saw that got all the attention — because she was being a good, observant journalist, not simply parroting their tradwife propaganda.
What are your thoughts on her response, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below!
[Image via Hannah Neeleman/Instagram]
