In response to a journalist’s claim that her husband oppresses her, a farmer, entrepreneur, and mother of eight who is famous online for her “Ballerina Farm,” vehemently denied the accusation and said that she thoroughly enjoys her lifestyle.
In an August 1 Instagram video, Mormon Hannah Neeleman—a former ballerina who is now married to the heir of an airline fortune—shared that she was “taken aback” by an article that attacked her husband while vaguely describing her “trad wife” lifestyle. “Trad” is a faintly derogatory term for “traditional wife.”
To gain a closer look at the life of the internet’s “poster woman” for the conventional housewife, journalist Megan Agnew of the UK Times recently visited Neeleman and her family on their ranch in Utah.
Neeleman had hoped that the interview with Agnew would provide a nice picture of her beloved life, but she was disappointed to see that the published piece included several overt accusations of her husband’s oppressive behavior.
The first jab was when Neeleman mentioned that Agnew and her husband Daniel had to give up some of their aspirations to live the way they do. Agnew then implied that Hannah had given in too much to her husband’s demands rather than the other way around.
Agnew claimed that the little barn that Neeleman had intended to turn into a dance studio ended up serving as the children’s classroom instead, reporting it as if the decision oppressed Neeleman. They could afford to build a dance studio if need be. According to Neeleman, Agnew’s intimations were way out of line.
Another jab was when Agnew stated that Neeleman couldn’t answer a question without her being interrupted and corrected by her husband.
Neeleman made it plain that she is living her life to the fullest, unfettered by her spouse. But in a podcast, she said that “you give up a piece of yourself” in a marriage—something that is not uncommon in a relationship. Agnew shared this in her hit piece.
The article asked if Neeleman’s life is the new vision of femininity — or a devastating blow to feminism.
Neeleman said that she and her husband’s “priority in life is God and family” and that nothing they said throughout the interview suggested otherwise, leading her to assume that the angle adopted was intentional.
