Posted on 06/22/2004 7:29:32 AM PDT by esryle
CHICAGO -- Illinois Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan pressured his wife, actress Jeri Lynn Ryan, to have sex in clubs while others watched, she charged in divorce documents released Monday.
The "Boston Public" and "Star Trek: Voyager" actress said she angered Ryan by refusing. She did acknowledge infidelity on her part, which she said took place after their marriage was irretrievably broken.
In the documents, Ryan denied the allegations, saying he had been "faithful and loyal" to his wife. At a press conference Monday night, he expressed disappointment with the precedent set by the court order to release the documents.
"Someone was paid a lot of money to break into a file that Mom and Dad wanted to have sealed to protect their son," he said. "And now we're asking about what happened between a husband and wife in the most intimate part of the relationship."
The documents include hundreds of court-ordered blank or redacted pages, but what's left includes plenty of graphic detail about a bitter divorce.
Jeri Lynn Ryan charged during a custody hearing that Jack Ryan took her on surprise trips to New Orleans, New York and Paris in 1998, and that he insisted she go to sex clubs with him on each trip. She said that after going out to dinner with Ryan in New York, he demanded that she go to a club with him.
"It was a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling," she said.
She said Ryan asked her to perform a sexual act while others watched, and she refused. She said they left and Ryan apologized to her and said it was out of his system.
But then, she said, he took her to Paris and again took her to a sex club. She said she cried and became physically ill at the club, and her husband got angry with her. She said she could never get over that incident.
Ryan refused to address the charges directly Monday night, repeatedly referring to the court documents, where he said: "I was faithful and loyal to my wife throughout our marriage. I did arrange romantic getaways, but that did not include the activities she described. We did go to one avant-garde nightclub in Paris, which was more than either of us felt comfortable with. We left and vowed never to return."
He said he felt bad for their son that she would falsely accuse him and said she said she knew he had political aspirations.
Asked why Jeri Lynn Ryan made such specific allegations, Jack Ryan again referred to the court documents.
"You saw my response," he said. "That is not helpful toward what we're trying to accomplish as parents, to reopen those discussions."
In a statement released Monday evening, Jeri Lynn Ryan made no mention of the allegations, but said she now considered Ryan a good man and loving father.
"I consider Jack a friend," the statement said. "There was never any physical abuse in our marriage, either to myself or to our son. Nor to my knowledge was he ever unfaithful to me. Jack is a good man, a loving father and he shares a strong bond with our son. I have no doubt that he will make an excellent senator."
Judge Robert Schnider of Superior Court in Los Angeles ordered Friday the unsealing of portions of the records.
The two had vigorously fought the public disclosure of the files since before Jack Ryan's win in the March 16 Republican primary. They have argued making them public would be harmful to their 9-year-old son, Alex.
The Ryans said they were "disturbed and angered" by the decision but decided not to appeal.
Ryan had repeatedly assured GOP leaders the files contain nothing embarrassing enough to torpedo his bid for the Senate against Democrat Barack Obama.
Rumors about the documents' contents have been circulating since before the March 16 primary. Some of his GOP opponents raised them as an issue in that campaign, but Ryan won the primary handily.
Schnider said making the records public would prove harmful to the Ryans' son, and could prove embarrassing to the former investment banker and teacher. But he said the public deserved to know the contents
The Chicago Tribune and Chicago TV station WLS sued to have the documents released.
Bringing new meaning to the words 'assimilate me'.
*YIKES!*
Hope this turns out okay for her.
Resistance is futile.
Talk about a shocker. Of course being a Republican, he's toast.
Wasnt it bad enough that the Illinois Republicans ran another guy with the name Ryan? You would think in the entire state there must be someone better qualified to run for office?
Nice boilers
If he were a Democrat, he would win by a landslide... <sigh
I learned long ago to never take anything seriously in a divorce. The anger alone makes any specific accusation suspect.
I feel sorry for both of them, and the children. Shame on whoever leaked this to the press, its a clear political smear of the worst sort imaginable.
Somewhere, there is a person very pleased with themselves, and in the back of their mind they are thinking "the ends justify the means".
Sacrificing the relationship of a kid with his parents on the pretense of winning an election is disgusting.
The public deserves to know the contents of divorce proceedings? If it's a public official (or aspiring public official) I think it would only be useful to disclose such information if it revealed some legitimate corruption.
While the voyeur in me would love to see the guts of a future Clinton divorce, for example, I don't think I have a right to such personal information.
She should have kept her legs closed until the divorce was final or at least through the first courtroom hearing of the divorce.
Hope he was good because the lawyer will make her pay for that little tryst.
Both of them opposed opening the files to the press. It was the judge who overruled them. Jeri Ryan still thinks the world of her husband and that's gracious of her, considering how bitter the couple's divorce has been. My belief is a divorce proceeding is no one else's business.
There is no earthly reason to justify the release of these documents, other than it just goes to show that sex sells, and the debasement of our culture continues.
For the life of me, I cannot think why...
He has political aspirations? He's demented beyond help.
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