CNN turns up a cache that raise questions about Gingrich’s claim that his first wife requested their divorce:
The documents, and interviews with people close to the couple at the time, contradict the Gingrich claim about who wanted the divorce.
Newt Gingrich filed a divorce complaint on July 14, 1980, in Carroll County, saying that “the marriage of the parties is irretrievably (sic) broken.”
Jackie Battley Gingrich, the congressman’s wife and the mother of Jackie Gingrich Cushman, responded by asking the judge to reject her husband’s filing.
“Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time,” her petition said.
“Although defendant does not admit that this marriage is irretrievably broken, defendant has been hopeful that an arrangement for temporary support of defendant and the two minor daughters of the parties could be mutually agreed upon without the intervention of this court,” her petition said. “All efforts to date have been unsuccessful.”
When CNN presented the information found in the divorce file to the Gingrich campaign, its spokesman stood by the contention that it was Gingrich’s ex-wife who asked for the divorce in 1980.
The Gingrich camp’s argument appears to be that while Gingrich initiated the legal process, his first wife still requested the divorce in a non-legal context. That may be true but it’s harder to prove without documentation.
(Source: Politico)
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7 Responses
This must be his first divorce. What about the 2nd for which he’s accused of asking for the divorce while the 2nd wife was on her death bed? I’ve read that she’s still alive, so I guess she wasn’t on her death bed.
He’s certainly not a man with family values.
Who cares?
Cnn you really get the best news story of 2011; but Sylondra
or Holder with holding information is nothing that really affect the control. Grow up and report honestly
and that is important to his presidential run, How?
1. As for the second divorce, his daughter said the story perpetrated by the media was FALSE.
First, this is some of the worst type of Loshon Hara and I am surprised that you would engage in this.
Second, as a lawyer who has done divorces, I can tell you that it is more common than not for divorce papers NOT to represent what is actually happening in the marriage and that is because of the legal requirements for getting the divorce approved by a judge
MODERATOS RESPONSE: Lashon Hara?!
For those of you thinking about believing that Mr. Gingrich – who commenced the lawsuit that resulted in his first divorce – did not want his first divorce, consider how he explained the failures of his two failed marriages: sometimes, I was so in love with my country and so devoted to serving it that I neglected my marriages. Is that not the lamest and most shamelessest lie you ever heard?