‘American Idol’s Gabby Barrett Cringes Over How She First Flirted With Cade Foehner
What To Know
- Gabby Barrett opened up about the early days of her relationship with now-husband Cade Foehner in a new interview.
- She recalled how she first noticed him on American Idol and embarrassingly revealed how she tried to flirt with him at the time.
- Barrett also shared how she and Foehner maintain a healthy marriage in the public eye.
Gabby Barrett and Cade Foehner have been married since 2019, but it wasn’t easy for her to get his attention at first. The two met while competing on Season 16 of American Idol in 2018, and Barrett said she was immediately struck by his “appealing” features and ability to play guitar.
The “I Hope” singer appeared on Kaitlyn Bristowe‘s Off the Vine podcast and opened up about the early days of her romance with her now-husband. Admittedly, Barrett didn’t have much game while pursuing Foehner.
Barrett shared that her dad was enamored by Foehner “right around the same time” she also started “noticing him” during the Top 24 of Idol. “We always respected and found it very interesting when other kids came on the stage and just looked like vets,” Barrett explained. “He looks like Robert Plant or Led Zeppelin. We were really fascinated by that.”
After the performance when her dad pointed Foehner out to her, Barrett said she went backstage and told him he did a good job, but Foehner was “reserved” when he thanked her. “To this day, he says he doesn’t remember that, but I remember it, and it did happen.”
At that point, Barrett was trying harder to strike up conversations with her competitor, and she couldn’t help but cringe as she remembered how she attempted to flirt. “This is so weird,” she admitted. “For some reason, I was like, ‘How can I communicate to this guy?’ In soundcheck, we’re practicing, I was like, ‘Can I get a picture with you?’ Oh my gosh. Help me. Talk about something you don’t want to replay.”
They took the picture together and then “ended up hanging out in a little conference room at the hotel.” From there, Foehner asked Barrett to hang out again, which led to group hangs that continued throughout the show before Foehner “asked me to be his lady,” Barrett smiled.
Later that year, they were both part of the American Idol tour, which allowed them to get to know each other very quickly. They got engaged in March 2019 and tied the knot later that year. Now, they have three children together.
Barrett has established herself as a country music star, and Foehner is now her lead guitar player, while also pursuing his own music dreams. “We get to do it together because we really didn’t see a world where it would work out doing it separately,” Barrett admitted. “The demands of artists and what that calls for … the visibility, the attention, the traveling, especially as a new artist and trying to break through that. That was probably going to be impossible [if we were apart].”
As for how she and Foehner navigate their relationship in the public eye, Barrett had a simple response: “I don’t really pay attention to people’s perception of my marriage very much. I just don’t spend much time on it because I know who I am as a person. I also know who he is as a person, and what’s important to us is what we’re doing and committing to behind cameras.”
American Idol, Season 24, Mondays, 8/7c, ABC
