Argentina’s former first lady said she was pressured by the future president to have an abortion years before his election because he was “not ready” to be a father.
Fabiola Yáñez made the shocking revelation Tuesday from the Argentine consulate in Madrid, where she now resides, during a Zoom hearing with a federal prosecutor in Buenos Aires as part of an investigation into allegations that she was physically abused by former President Alberto Fernández.
The 43-year-old actress and journalist began dating Fernandez in 2014 and said she became pregnant for the first time before their May 2016 engagement in Paris.
“We were already living together and agreed to our dating plans, trusting his words of wanting to have another child with me and start a family, and it turned out that shortly after living together I became pregnant,” Yáñez said. “The joy and surprise on my part was immense until I told him.”
Fernandez, now 65, showed his ‘contempt and rejection’ towards Yanez, he testified
‘This time, regarding our unborn child, she told me: “This can’t happen, I’m in shock.”
Former Argentine first lady Fabiola Yáñez, who last week accused ex-President Alberto Fernández of domestic violence, told Buenos Aires prosecutors on Tuesday that he pressured her to have an abortion before they got engaged in 2016.
Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández has publicly denied accusations made by his former first lady Fabiola Yáñez that he physically abused her
Former First Lady Fabiola Yáñez and former President Alberto Fernández (pictured, December 2021) were together from 2015 to 2024
Yanez added that Fernandez “started harassing me, telling me that it was too soon, that he wasn’t ready yet, that he hadn’t introduced me to his son,” whom he had with his ex-wife.
The former first lady said that Fernandez then “began the second part of her plan of contempt, to push me to execute the worst decision. She began to ignore me completely.”
Although they lived in the same house, she said Fernandez did not speak to her and made her feel like “a piece of furniture in my own house, carrying his child in my womb.”
“He told me, ‘I can’t tell anyone that I’m going to have a child with you in such a short time,’ and I said, ‘But then why didn’t you tell me? We would have been careful,’” Yanez said. “He told me, ‘We have to figure it out, you have to have an abortion.’”
Fernandez eventually told her son, who was in his early 20s at the time, about the pregnancy and then blamed Yanez for going through with the abortion, she said.
The former first lady did not provide a date for when the abortion took place.
Fernández was elected president after defeating incumbent President Mauricio Macri in August 2019.
The couple revealed in September 2021 that they were expecting their first child and welcomed a boy on August 6, 2022.
Yanez formally accused Fernandez of domestic violence last week before online news site Infobae leaked photos showing her covered in bruises.
Photos leaked last week by the online news portal Infobae revealed the alleged abuse that Yáñez suffered during the government of former President Alberto Fernández in 2021. The images were released after Yáñez accused Fernández of domestic violence.
Yanez with Fernandez and his son, Francisco
Fernández with Yáñez in December 2021, when she was pregnant with her son, who was born in August 2022.
In a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation from August 13, 2001 obtained by the media outlet, Fernandez told Yanez: “I feel bad physically.”
Yanez then responded: ‘This is not how it works. You hit me all the time. It’s unbelievable. I can’t let you do this to me when I didn’t do anything to you. And all I’m trying to do with my focused mind is defend you and you’re physically hitting me. There’s no explanation.’
He then sent her a photo of his bruised arm and another of his bruised right eye.
In a WhatsApp conversation from July 2021, Yáñez told Fernández: “You hit me again. You’re crazy.”
The former president responded: “I feel bad,” before Yáñez said: “You have been hitting me for three days in a row.”
The couple will arrive in Washington in May 2023
Yáñez and his son now live in Madrid
Fernandez appeared to regret his actions when he replied: “I’m having trouble breathing. Please stop. I feel very bad.”
Yanez responded: “And when you shook my arms you left me with bruises. That’s when you shook me.”
She has said that the worst part of the attack occurred in 2023, the last year of Fernández’s term, when she was living in a guest house at the presidential palace.
Fernández has publicly denied Yáñez’s accusations and has promised to provide evidence to exonerate himself in court.
He remains locked up in his house in Buenos Aires and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also not allowed to come within 500 metres of Yáñez.