Country Star Gabby Barrett Turns Down Duets to Protect Her Marriage
Country singer Gabby Barrett and husband Cade Foehner have set certain boundaries with their careers in order to protect their marriage.
“I won’t get into specific songs, but there’s been large song opportunities that have come in for me to do [an] add-on or be a part of and something between myself and my husband and I respect him a ton and I listen to what he has to say and I think he deserves that,” Barrett, 23, said during the Monday, December 18, episode of the “Unexpected with Hannah Love” podcast. “And there’s been songs that are just not appropriate to sing wording-wise … like, these love songs that are really intimate.”
Barrett and Foehner, 27, met while competing on American Idol season 16 in 2018. They got engaged the next year, tying the knot seven months later in October 2019. The two musicians share daughter Baylah, 2, son Augustine, 14 months, and are currently expecting baby No. 3.
While neither Barrett nor Foehner won American Idol, they have continued to make music. In 2021, Barrett picked up two trophies at the American Music Awards and one at the CMT Music Awards.
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Barrett’s successes have meant that other artists have reached out for duets, however, the “obligation” of signing onto the track has made her hesitant to accept offers.
“When you accept a song, there’s that goes along with it, that you could sing it on award shows together, you might be doing interviews together,” Barrett said. “What does that look like on the stage? What does that dynamic look like? If I’m singing with another man, is that going to make my husband uncomfortable? Probably.”
She continued: “And I respect him and love him so much that I’m not going to jeopardize my marriage to do a duet with somebody, you know. Like, 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.”
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Barrett cited her and Foehner’s shared faith as the reason she’s been able to stand strong in her convictions.
“It helps me to be very firm no matter what the push is from outside industry and outside people,” she told host Hannah Love, who is married to Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney. “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.’ … I treasure a Godly marriage over anything the world could offer because that is so much. I know where I’m going, I’m who I’m going to answer to and it’s not those people.”
