Nadine Ayoub, the first-ever Palestinian contestant in the Miss Universe competition, was married to Sharif Barghouti, the son of senior Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti, and later named her child after him, the New York Post revealed.
Ayoub, who says she is a 27-year-old US and Canadian citizen living in Dubai, made headlines recently after being selected as the first Palestinian representative in Miss Universe 2025, which concluded Thursday night with Miss Mexico winning the crown.
Old photos obtained by the New York Post show that she made a notable effort to hide the fact that she had once been married to Sharif Barghouti, son of the well-known Fatah leader who is serving five life sentences at the Israeli Hadarim Prison for orchestrating terrorist attacks that killed five people in 2001 and 2002.
Posts on social media indicate that Ayoub married Sharif Barghouti in 2016, and three years later gave birth to a son named Marwan, apparently in tribute to the convicted murderer and terrorist.
It remains unclear whether the two are still married. A family member contacted by the New York Post confirmed that the pair had been married but declined to discuss their current marital status.
The photos show Miss "Palestine" cuddling with her husband and posing alongside Marwan Barghouti's wife, Fadwa, who is herself a prominent figure in Fatah. She also appears in other images published by Palestinian media with Fadwa and additional members of the Barghouti family.
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She described herself as a fitness instructor, and a New York Post investigation found that she taught fitness classes at a gym in Ramallah called IQ Fitness, owned by Qassem Barghouti, one of the sons of the convicted terrorist. He, too, had previously been imprisoned before being acquitted of an assassination attempt and four attempted murders.
The Palestinian representative in the Miss Universe 2025 pageant has sparked controversy on several occasions and has spoken out against Israel on social media. This week, during the competition, Ayoub wore a robe featuring an illustration of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem for the national costume segment, a choice that angered many Israeli users online.
Last month, Ayoub posted a series of messages about the war on social media. In one post she inflated the number of Palestinian casualties, and in another she portrayed Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the Israeli children who were murdered in Hamas captivity, as Palestinian victims of the war.
