Gestures and silent pauses are fundamental in comprehension and communication of emotional speech. Although the effect of gesture inhibition on speech disfluencies is well studied in scripted or non-emotional context, its effect on silent pause behaviour, particularly in spontaneous, emotionally charged narratives remains unexplored. The present study investigates how restricting gestures affects pause behaviour (frequency, duration and proportion), during the narration of negative valence narratives and neutral narratives (daily routine). Silent pauses were categorized using a tri-distribution approach based on length and function: short (250-500ms), medium (500-1000ms) and long (more than 1000ms) pauses. Thirty participants (aged 18 – 23) were divided into gesture-restricted (N = 15) and non-gesture restricted (N = 15). Speech recordings were annotated using ELAN 6.7 and pause measures were analysed using contrast-based mixed effects approach on 4242 observations. Although emotional narratives showed similar effects on speech and pause behaviour across groups, gesture restriction amplified long-pause count, while reducing speech rate and pause proportion across pause types, particularly in emotional narratives. In contrast, long-length pause durations increased in neutral narratives under gesture inhibition. These findings suggest that inhibiting gestures selectively modulates long-pause behaviour, associated with emotional processing and hesitancy, alongside reduced pause proportion in emotional narratives. Results are discussed within psycholinguistic gesture theories and embodied emotion perspectives.