Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House Speaker, asked his former wife for an open marriage. The question of an open marriage came up during his marriage to Marianne Gingrich. He wanted the open marriage when he was in the middle of an affair with former congressional aid and current wife, Callista. This information was made available to the public last night on ABC in an interview aired with Marianne Gingrich.
“And I just stared at him and he said, ‘Callista doesn’t care what I do,’” she said. “He wanted an open marriage and I refused.”
Two days prior to the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, the interview was aired, along with the same day the final debate came in the state prior to the vote.
Gingrich spoke today in Beaufort, South Carolina, and 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.”
On a radio call-in show in South Carolina, Gingrich also said that the interview with his ex-wife was ‘very sad’ and that her statements are ‘just plain untrue.’ Gingrich also said that his two daughters from marriage number one and close friends ‘are all willing to be witness to protest it.’
“People sometimes get very bitter,” he said on WVOC’s Keven Cohen show. “They sometimes hold grudges.”
The interview was with ABC’s Brian Ross, in which Marianne Gingrich said that her former husband does not have the moral character to be the country’s president and that his campaign positions on family values and marriage are not a reflection of his personal behavior.
Marianne also said that her husband’s affair occurred while he was leading the United States House impeachment against President Bill Clinton.
Marianne also added that she was shocked to find out that her husband conducted his affair “in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington. He always called me at night,” she said, “and always ended with ‘I love you.’ Well, she was listening.”
Marianne Ginther Gingrich began dating when Gingrich was still married to his first wife, Jackie Battley Gingrich. The couple was married only six months after his first divorce back in 1981.
In the interview with ABC, Marianne Gingrich said that the two got divorced when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She also said that Gingrich divorced his first wife when she was being treated for cancer.
“He also was advised by the doctor when I was sitting there that I was not to be under stress. He knew,” she said in the interview.
Gingrich has repeatedly ducked questions about his second marriage, telling questioners that his does not have a relationship with Marianne Gingrich.
A letter was sent by Gingrich’s daughters to ABC News executives that said, “The failure of a marriage is a terrible and emotional experience for everyone involved.”