Fabiola Yáñez

Fabiola Andrea Yáñez was born on 14 July 1981 in Villa Regina, Río Negro Province,[2] although she grew up in Alem, Misiones Province. Through her mother, she is of Chilean descent.[3] Her family moved to Misiones when she was a teenager, and she finished high school in Posadas.[4]

She studied journalism at the University of Palermo, in Buenos Aires; her licenciate dissertation was on the "interdiscursive tension between Néstor Kirchner and Clarín from 2003 to 2007."[5][6] She met Alberto Fernández, then Néstor and Cristina Kirchner's former chief of cabinet, while doing research for her dissertation.[2]

Yáñez's media career began when she was 17, when she co-hosted a children's program in Rosario's Canal 3; she later acted in small stage productions in Rosario as well.[7] She continued to host a number of shows in Canal 3 until 2004.[8] She also co-hosted Estrictamente personal, a show dealing with sexuality topics on Cablevisión's Canal 6.[9] After graduating from university, Yáñez worked for a number of domestic and international news agencies, including Infobae, Página/12, América TV, C5N, CNN+ and Spain's La Razón.[7] In 2018 she began co-hosting Moria Casán's América TV talk show, Incorrectas, and later starred in the stage show ¡Otra vez papá! Después de los 50, alongside Manuel Wirzt.[10][11]

First Lady of Argentina

Yáñez (far left) with Fernández, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu during a presidential visit to Jerusalem in January 2020.

On 10 December 2019, her partner Alberto Fernández was elected as President of Argentina. She has stated that she wishes to use her position as a platform for social work, especially in respect to Argentine children and families.[5][6][12] Yáñez has embraced the title of "First Lady" despite criticism from government-aligned feminist activists and intellectuals, such as Dora Barrancos.[13][14]

From January to February 2020, Yáñez accompanied Fernández in his first tour as president of Argentina, starting in Jerusalem, Israel on 24 January 2020, where the presidential couple met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sara Netanyahu, later visiting Berlin and Paris. In Paris she met with UNESCO authorities to be briefed on the organization's education, inclusivity and childhood programmes.[15][16]

In March 2020, Yáñez participated alongside Chief of Cabinet Santiago Cafiero and Women's Minister Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta in the re-inauguration of the Argentine Women's Bicentennial Hall in the Casa Rosada.[17] Later, in April 2020, Yáñez organized and hosted Unidos por Argentina, a TV event oriented toward raising funds for the Argentine Red Cross to aid in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic; the event raised over US$500,000 during its 7-hour duration.[18][19]

On 23 April 2020, Yáñez pressed charges against a La Plata-based news agency for libel, harassment and gender-based discrimination.[20]

Yáñez has been in a relationship with Alberto Fernández since 2014.[1] Since Fernández's election as president, the couple have resided in the Quinta de Olivos; prior to that, they lived in an apartment in the Puerto Madero neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.[21] Fernández and Yáñez own four collies: Dylan, Prócer, Keila and Blue.[22]

On 23 September 2021, the presidential office's medical unit announced Yáñez was expecting her first child.[23] Yáñez and Fernández's son, Francisco Fernández Yáñez, was born on 11 April 2022 at Sanatorio Otamendi, in Buenos Aires.[24][25]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fabiola Yáñez.

• Fabiola Yáñez on Instagram