For years, Newt Gingrich has claimed that his 1st marriage ended because his wife asked him for a divorce. But newly uncovered court documents confirm that Newt’s claims are a big, fat lie!
Now in his 3rd marriage, Newt Gingrich has remained consistent with the story he has frequently told voters regarding his 1980 divorce from Jackie Gingrich. On the “Answering the Attacks” page of his campaign website, Newt.org, the campaign website says “It was (Jackie Gingrich) that requested the divorce, not Newt.”
But court records dispute Newt’s claims, providing proof that the Republican presidential candidate himself filed a divorce complaint on July 14, 1980, in Carroll County, saying that “the marriage of the parties is irretriebably (sic) broken.”
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| Jackie Gingrich, Marianne Gingrich, Callista Gingrich |
“Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time,” the 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. All efforts to date have been unsuccessful.”
Leonard H. “Kip” Carter, a former and close friend to Gingrich also confirmed that it was indeed Newt Gingrich who wanted the divorce. “He (Gingrich) said, ‘You know and I know that she’s not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a president.’ “
When Newt filed for divorce from Jackie Gingrich, he was already seeing 28-year-old congressional aide Marianne Ginther, whom he married 6 months after his divorce was finalized in 1981. Gingrich then divorced Marianne Ginther Gingrich 19 years later, after having an affair with yet another younger congressional aide, Callista Bisek, whom he married soon after his divorce. Callista Bisek Gingrich is now the current wife and was the subject of Newt’s million dollar line of credit at Tiffany’s.
The Gingrich campaign has gone to great lengths to keep this information from reaching the evangelical, family values and female wings of the Republican Party. But now that the information is public, it will be interesting to see how it affects support among these groups.
