McCain's broken marriage and fractured Reagan friendship

[kskiska]

The nature and timing of his divorce from Carol Shepp alienated key friends -- and his version doesn't always match that in court documents.

Outside her Bel-Air home, Nancy Reagan stood arm in arm with John McCain and offered a significant -- but less than exuberant -- endorsement.

"Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided, and then we endorsed," the Republican matriarch said in March. "Well, obviously this is the nominee of the party." They were the only words she would speak during the five-minute photo op.

In a written statement, she described McCain as "a good friend for over 30 years." But that friendship was strained in the late 1970s by McCain's decision to divorce his first wife, Carol, who was particularly close to the Reagans, and within weeks marry Cindy Hensley, the young heiress to a lucrative Arizona beer distributorship.

The Reagans rushed to help Carol, finding her a new home in Southern California with the family of Reagan aide Edwin Meese III and a series of political and White House jobs to ease her through that difficult time.

McCain, who is about to become the GOP nominee, has made several statements about how he divorced Carol and married Hensley that conflict with the public record.

more…
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-divorce11-2008jul11,0,2177702.story

[Virginia Dare]

1. Ronny dumped Jane Wyman for Nancy..

so what was their beef?

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Correction: Jane dumped Ronnie. Got tired of his obsession with politics.

[bahrbearian]

3. Where was Nancy at the time?

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Nancy was trying to get her foot in the door in Hollywood. Her mother,

a wannabe actress, used her association with Zazu Pitts to get Nancy into pictures. Nancy Davis was the name of another actress being investigated for communism. Depending on which story you believe, our Nancy went to Ronald Reagan, the president of SAG, to clear her name so she could work, or it was a ruse to meet him as she was smitten with him. Jane was out of the picture long by then. Between the divorce and Nancy, Reagan was a wild man in the dating scene I heard.

[bahrbearian]

10. Thanks for the info.

:hi:

[no_hypocrisy]

11. You're welcome.

Back atcha.

:hi:

[Ian David]

4. And Nancy Reagan gave the best blow-jobs in Hollywood, according to several sources. n/t

[anitar1]

14. Jane Wyman far surpassed Ronnie in intelligence. She once said in an interview

something to the effect " if you ask Ronnie the time, he will try to describe the workings of a wristwatch" she was bored to death by him.

[jeff30997]

5. Sorry...

But I can't read anything containing McCain and Reagan in the same text...:puke: ARGH!Just typing it makes me sick!!!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. "4 Hippies and a Freeper."

Alert Hollywood! (The title alone!)

[kskiska]

8. Lots of new info in this article

On Christmas Eve 1969, while she was driving alone in Philadelphia, Carol McCain's car skidded and struck a utility pole. Thrown into the snow, she broke both legs, an arm and her pelvis. She was operated on a dozen times, and in the treatment she lost about 5 inches in height.

After John McCain was released in March 1973 and returned to the U.S., he told friends that Carol was not the woman he had married.

(snip)

Carol McCain was distraught at being blindsided by her husband's intention to end their marriage, said her friends in the Reagan circle.

"They weren't happy with him," Fitzwater said. Carol McCain "was this little, frail person. . . . She was brokenhearted."

[theoldman]

9. I guess this is one thing I do not question John McCain.

He was gone for many years and very few marriages can survive a long separation. We do not know if Carol had problems having sex. This alone can break up a marriage. Due to the many problems they had I do not hold this against him.

What I do hold against John McCain is that he is still kissing Bush's ass. He should have switched to Democrat after 2000.

[El Supremo]

12. "In sickness and in health"

I guess those words were left out of the marriage vows.

[kskiska]

13. Ross Perot paid Carol McCain's medical bills

(snip)

…She did not tell her husband about the accident in her letters to him, believing he already had enough to worry about, and the U.S. State Department told a surgeon who operated upon her not to mention anything to the press, lest it worsen the treatment for John McCain. Businessman and POW advocate Ross Perot paid for her medical care and she remained grateful to him: "The military families are in Ross's heart and in his soul ... There are millions of us who are extremely grateful to Ross Perot." Years after John McCain found out about Perot's help, he said "we loved him for it."

(snip)

…Ross Perot would later say, "After came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona and the rest is history." Carol’s three children were initially upset with John McCain about the divorce, but later reconciled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_McCain