John Fetterman Reveals He Was ‘Suicidal’ After ‘Disaster’ Debate Against Dr. Oz and Worried He Would Lose His Family

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 30, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) revealed he was “suicidal” and worried he would lose his wife and family after his depression worsened, following what he called a “disaster” of a debate against Dr. Mehmet Oz (R) in October 2022.

The senator discussed the dark period in an excerpt from his new book, Unfettered, that was published by The Free Press on Monday.

Fetterman said he was already in rough shape by the time the debate happened, just months after he suffered a stroke.

“My first words were: ‘Good night, everybody.’ You could hear a pin drop,” Fetterman recalled. “And it continued like this. I paused too many times. Every time I began a sentence, there was fear among supporters that I would not finish it. It was a disaster.”

He said the issue that night, as the two men argued why they should become Pennslyvania’s next senator, was not the lingering issues he dealt with from his stroke — “it was nerves.”

Fetterman continued: “I knew this was a make-or-break moment that would determine the outcome of the election, and I had wilted. I’d choked.”

His depression only worsened afterwards, as he scanned reactions on X. And he said he was already in a bad place mentally heading into the debate, thanks to criticism from Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity.

“For months [after the debate], I was suicidal. Paranoid. Not eating. Not sleeping. Not speaking. Not functioning. Resigned. Ashamed. Despairing,” Fetterman said. “Despairing everywhere I was. Up was down, and down was up.”

He said his depression continued, even after he won the Senate race. He spent most of his time in bed, and once he was in office, his wife, Gisele, said he “could not come home” until he was back to being himself.

Things finally turned around, Fetterman said, after he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in February 2023, where he was diagnosed with severe depression.

He was still hesitant to see his wife and three children, though, until an unnamed “young therapist-in-training” told him “Children need their daddy.” Those words hit Fetterman like a ton of bricks, he said, and became a “mantra” for him. Soon after, he reconnected with his family, and things have been better ever since, he said.

Unfettered, published by Penguin Random House, will be released on Tuesday.

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