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(Kerry's) First wife `suffocated' under political spotlight
Boston Herald ^ | 7/20/2004 | David R. Guarino and Andrew Miga

Posted on 07/26/2004 11:53:26 AM PDT by BushisTheMan

Friends say the union of John Kerry [related, bio] and Julia Thorne was a rousing love affair when they met at Yale - he a dashing 19-year-old, she a bikini-clad babe and twin sister to Kerry's best friend.

But for a political marriage, it was a dud and it ended badly.

It couldn't have happened at a worse time for the budding politician's career, the summer of 1982, just as Kerry emerged as a serious candidate for Massachusetts lieutenant governor.

Kerry later called the divorce a ``super-painful process'' and laughs off his bachelor days as the loneliest time of his life.

``Everybody thinks it's terrific, but it can be absolutely quite lonely,'' Kerry said.

The marriage was solid, Julia Thorne has said, until Kerry first ran for office. That bitter 1972 congressional race in Lowell turned Julia against John, especially when a rock came crashing through the family home and nearly hit the crib of their baby, Alexandra.

Politics, Julia Kerry wrote in a scathing 1996 memoir on her failed marriage, stole her privacy.

``I was alone and overwhelmed, abandoned with a new baby in a town that held political disdain for us,'' she wrote.

Thorne suffered from what she would later call severe depression and contemplated suicide. She wrote that the marriage was ``suffocating.''

The two split in 1982 but didn't divorce until 1988, four years after Kerry joined the U.S. Senate.

Thorne moved far from Massachusetts and tried to avoid the press, succeeding mostly until a New Yorker Magazine article earlier this year suggested she was too depressed to take care of their children and that she held open disdain for Kerry while they were married.

``There were times at dinner parties when John would be very pompous, unable to control his impulse to make a speech,'' a person described as an ``acquaintance'' told writer Joe Klein. ``It was all slightly laughable, and Julia was one of those who laughed.

``She'd say things like, `What the (expletive) did you just say?' ''

Kerry wrote the magazine to dispute many of the story's points and Thorne decided to open up again, talking with Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley for his book, ``Tour of Duty,'' and granting an interview to Newsweek magazine in which she said she backs his candidacy.

Reporters have fought to gain access to parts of the couple's divorce records, including financial settlements, which so far remain sealed. Kerry has said he will fight the effort because the details of his split are ``none of anybody's business.''

But Julia Thorne, now remarried and living in Montana, remains wary of her daughters - now darlings of the media as they campaign for their father - getting too involved in the public life.

``The risk of us becoming more public is concerning for her,'' Vanessa Kerry told Newsweek. ``It's been a funny balancing act, trying to not make (her) an enigma but also let her have her own life.''


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: divorce; juliathorne; kerry; kerrydivorce; thorne
She'd say things like, `What the (expletive) did you just say?'

The first wife sounds as bad as the second wife. The choices people make...Kerry has made 2 out of 2.

FREE THE DIVORCE PAPERS!

1 posted on 07/26/2004 11:53:27 AM PDT by BushisTheMan
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To: BushisTheMan
First wife `suffocated' under political spotlight

She should be thankful he didn't have a pillow handy.

2 posted on 07/26/2004 11:55:08 AM PDT by theDentist ("John Kerry changes positions more often than a Nevada prostitute.")
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To: BushisTheMan
``I was alone and overwhelmed, abandoned with a new baby

Didn't she know that Kerry just needed a prop, and she was that prop when he needed her?

3 posted on 07/26/2004 11:56:32 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: BushisTheMan
'he a dashing 19-year-old'

Dashing?

I don't think this is a word that could ever be associated with the Frankenkerry beast.

4 posted on 07/26/2004 11:57:33 AM PDT by The Iceman Cometh
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To: BushisTheMan

She can be thankful she was only in the spotlight and not Teddy's Oldsmobile.


5 posted on 07/26/2004 11:58:08 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedy family legacy - can't skipper a boat, can't fly, can't drive, can't ski)
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To: BushisTheMan; dighton; aculeus; general_re; L,TOWM; Constitution Day; hellinahandcart
"Kerry's) First wife "suffocated" under political spotlight

John F'n Kerry ... in the Conservatory ... with a lead pipe.

6 posted on 07/26/2004 12:01:27 PM PDT by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsënspåånkængrüppen ØberKømmändø (EMØØK))
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To: 1Old Pro
``I was alone and overwhelmed, abandoned with a new baby

By the look in the new wife's eyes, I'd say she felt the same way on the first day she woke up married to John.

7 posted on 07/26/2004 12:04:25 PM PDT by Dolphy
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To: BushisTheMan

Evidently he said ' till death do us part " and both are still alive .. Go figure !!


8 posted on 07/26/2004 12:05:03 PM PDT by Renegade
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To: Dolphy
By the look in the new wife's eyes, I'd say she felt the same way on the first day she woke up married to John.

Tereeeeeeesa was happier when Kerry left her alone.

9 posted on 07/26/2004 12:05:58 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: The Iceman Cometh
The Dashing John Kerry --

So, what we're to take from this article is that John Kerry was more interested in his political career than his marriage.

10 posted on 07/26/2004 12:06:21 PM PDT by My2Cents ("Fair, balanced...and unafraid.")
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To: BushisTheMan

Actually, she sounds pretty smart. After reading Kerry's speeches I feel the same way... What did he just say?


11 posted on 07/26/2004 12:08:53 PM PDT by AUsome Joy
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To: BushisTheMan
Here’s some photos of the “dashing” young Kerry and his “bikini-clad babe.”

I report, you decide.

12 posted on 07/26/2004 12:09:44 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: BushisTheMan

Is Vanessa the daughter that looks like the Statue of Liberty?

(Meoow! Sorry. I couldn't help it.)


13 posted on 07/26/2004 12:11:56 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Never again trust Democrats with national security!)
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To: BushisTheMan

14 posted on 07/26/2004 12:13:42 PM PDT by LibFreeUSA
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To: BushisTheMan
``I was alone and overwhelmed, abandoned with a new baby in a town that held political disdain for us,'' she wrote.

What town would that be? If in Massachusetts, how could the lieutenant governor be so disdained? If a Dem Senator in Washington in the 70s, the same goes. I empathize with her depression, but she still sounds a little off kilter.
15 posted on 07/26/2004 12:22:51 PM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: dead

Yikes! At least she's rich, is what I'm guessing Lurch was thinking.


16 posted on 07/26/2004 12:23:56 PM PDT by Nonstatist
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To: dead

A Young Frankenstein.


17 posted on 07/26/2004 12:46:24 PM PDT by topcat54
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