E-Paper
Who is Hannah Neeleman, mother-of-8 at the centre of Ballerina Farm controversy?
Here is all you need to know about Hannah Neeleman, the mom-of-eight and the wife of JetBlue heir Daniel Neeleman.
Hannah Neeleman, also known as Ballerina Farm, has broken her silence on the viral ‘Trad wife’ article that thrust her life into the spotlight. The 34-year-old mother of eight has been dubbed the “queen of the trad wives” (“trad” being short for traditional) for advocating a return to traditional gender roles. Her TikTok-famous lifestyle gained wider public attention after a Times of London article portrayed her as a victim of misogyny.
Here is all you need to know about Hannah Neeleman:
Hannah Neeleman is an American content creator and former dancer who posts videos of her traditional lifestyle under her Ballerina Farm social media accounts.
She is married to Daniel Neeleman, son of millionaire entrepreneur David Neeleman who has launched commercial airlines like JetBlue and WestJet, among others.
The couple got married in 2011 and have eight children together, whom they raise on their 328-acre farm in Utah called “Ballerina Farm.”
The family homestead’s name was inspired by Hannah’s lifelong dream of becoming a ballerina, which she gave up when she married Daniel.
Hannah and Daniel met while she was pursuing her degree at highly-selective Juilliard School in New York. “We dated only a couple of months before getting married,” she wrote in an updated “about me” section of her website while addressing the Times article controversy. “It was the best decision I ever made.”
“I was going to be a ballerina. I was a good ballerina,” Neeleman said in the controversial interview with The Times. “But I knew that when I started to have kids my life would start to look different.”
The couple got married in 2011 and welcomed their first child the following year. Both Hannah and Daniel are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - more commonly known as Mormons.
On her Ballerina Farm TikTok account, Hannah frequently shares videos that show her raising hens, carrying out mom duties, cooking, baking, and engaging in other ‘traditional’ housewife roles.
Besides looking after Ballerina Farm and raising her eight children without a nanny, Hannah also participates in pageants - she took part in the Mrs. World pageant in January 2024, less than two weeks after giving birth.
