Gingrich’s Ex-Wife: He Asked for ‘Open Marriage’

By Heidi Przybyla - Jan 20, 2012 7:56 AM GMT+0700

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich asked for an “open marriage” amid an affair with former congressional aide and current wife, Callista, according to an interview with his second wife, Marianne Gingrich, that is to be aired on ABC News tonight.

Gingrich, of Georgia, asked if she would share him with Callista, Marianne Gingrich said in the interview.

“And I just stared at him and he said, ‘Callista doesn’t care what I do,’” she said in her first televised interview since their 1999 divorce. “He wanted an open marriage and I refused.”

The interview is being aired two days before the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina and on the same day as the final debate in the state before the vote. Gingrich is challenging front-runner Mitt Romney for the nomination along with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

Gingrich, speaking today in Beaufort, South Carolina, said, “I’ve been very open about mistakes I have made. I’ve been very open about needing to go to God for forgiveness and to seek reconciliation.”

Later, on a South Carolina radio call-in show, he called the interview with his ex-wife “very sad” and said her statements are “just plain untrue.” He also said that his two daughters by his first wife and some close friends “are all willing to be witness to protest it.”

‘Very Bitter’

“People sometimes get very bitter,” he said on WVOC’s Keven Cohen show. “They sometimes hold grudges.”

In the interview with ABC’s Brian Ross to air tonight on “Nightline,” Marianne Gingrich said her former husband lacks the moral character to be president and that his campaign positions on family values and marriage don’t reflect his personal behavior, according to excerpts of the interview released by ABC.

She said her then-husband’s affair took place while Gingrich was leading the U.S. House impeachment proceedings against then-President Bill Clinton, which were prompted by sworn testimony Clinton gave about his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Former South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford, whose marriage to ex-Governor Mark Sanford ended in divorce after he had an affair with an Argentinian girlfriend, said Gingrich won’t get her vote. The accusations “question his character certainly on the personal side,” she said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “It comes down to the simple question of character.”

‘In My Bedroom’

Marianne Gingrich described her “shock” at Gingrich’s behavior, including learning that he conducted his affair “in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington,” according to the excerpts. “He always called me at night,” she said, “and always ended with ‘I love you.’ Well, she was listening.”

Marianne Ginther Gingrich and the Republican presidential hopeful began dating while Gingrich was still married to his first wife, Jackie Battley Gingrich. They were married about six months after his first divorce in 1981.

During their marriage, Gingrich credited Marianne with helping him lead a Republican Party comeback that culminated in the 1994 takeover of the House, ending 40 years of Democratic control of the chamber.

Two Divorces

Gingrich has tried to put his personal past behind him by saying he has made mistakes. Gingrich divorced his first wife as she was being treated for cancer. Gingrich moved toward a divorce with Marianne Gingrich months after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she said in the interview, according to ABC.

“He also was advised by the doctor when I was sitting there that I was not to be under stress. He knew,” she said, according to ABC. Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gingrich’s two prior marriages were part of the discussion during the campaign preceding the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, in which he finished fourth. Last month he revived the issue with claims about the details of his first divorce that were disputed by a former aide and court documents.

The Republican presidential candidate insists that it was his first wife who sought a divorce in 1980. After court records showed he filed the action, the Gingrich campaign said he had done so at her request.

Gingrich, 68, has largely sidestepped specific questions about his second marriage, saying he has “no relationship” with Marianne Gingrich.

An online column in May by daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman, referenced on his campaign website, asserted her mother had asked for the divorce. The elder Jackie, 75, couldn’t be reached for comment.

In a Jan. 18 memo from Gingrich’s daughters to ABC News leadership, which was released by his campaign, Kathy Lubbers and Jackie Cushman said, “The failure of a marriage is a terrible and emotional experience for everyone involved.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net