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‘Flip-flop’ faces new attacks as former wife beats cancer (KERRY UPDATE)
The Sunday Times ^ | September 19, 2004 | Sarah Baxter

Posted on 09/19/2004 1:21:23 AM PDT by MadIvan

IT HAS been one of the best-kept secrets of the presidential election campaign. Julia Thorne, the first wife of John Kerry, the Democrat candidate, has been suffering from cancer.

After months of treatment out of the public eye, she has now been declared cancer-free and has returned to her home in Montana.

Thorne is considering writing a book about her experience of illness, but not until after the November election. “She is somebody who has written books before and has a lot to share with people,” a family friend said.

If the past is a guide, she may include some acerbic thoughts on the political campaign. Thorne, who married Kerry in 1970 and divorced in 1988, so hated being a political wife that she became severely depressed.

“I associated politics only with anger, loneliness and fear,” she wrote in her 1996 book on divorce, A Change of Heart.

In another book, on depression, she described how she had contemplated suicide. “Five months after my 36th birthday, my mind ravaged by corroding voices, my body defeated by bone-rattling panics, I sat on the edge of my bed minutes from taking my own life.”

Kerry’s bid for the White House brought the press back to her door, but while daughters Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry took to campaigning with gusto, Thorne, 60, remained out of the limelight. Her cancer treatment, which began last November at an East Coast hospital, went unreported.

“She has been enormously stressed and very grateful that people have respected her privacy,” her friend added. Thorne will still have to return to hospital for check-ups.

A spokesman for the Kerry campaign said Alexandra, 30, and Vanessa, 27, had “plenty of opportunities to spend time with their mom”, despite their hectic political schedule. “They are very pleased that she is doing so well.”

The mainstream media have kept their distance from Kerry’s personal life and, in particular, his marriage to Thorne. Like his second wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, she was an heiress: her family was worth an estimated $300m. Her twin brother David Thorne was Kerry’s best friend at Yale University.

Some right-wing commentators have made hay with Kerry’s relationships, however. One of the most biting, Ann Coulter, has blasted the candidate as “just a gigolo”, “living off other men’s money by marrying their wives and daughters”.

Republican dirty tricks may intensify now that Thorne has recovered from her illness. On Rush Limbaugh’s hugely popular and ultra-conservative radio show, an advertisement about the candidate’s “flip-flops” — a persistent Republican theme — dominates most commercial breaks. The ad purports to sell anti-Kerry playing cards but is really an excuse to knock the candidate before an audience of millions.

To the theme tune of Flipper, the film about a dolphin, the narrator goes straight for the jugular: “He flip-flopped on his marriage of 18 years . . .” then turns to alleged “flip-flops” on policy.

Long after his divorce, Kerry went on to annul his marriage to Thorne in deference to his second wife, a Catholic. While Thorne did not contest the annulment, believing her husband had the right to remarry, she made no secret of her bitterness about the procedure.

“It was disrespectful to me, it was aloof to any emotional issues and devoid of any sense of the humanity of what this means to me and the children,” said Thorne.

Friends have been reluctant to revisit this episode out of loyalty to Thorne and political support for Kerry. In one of her few public comments, Thorne herself has said she is backing Kerry 100% for the presidency.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: firstwife; insensitivity; juliathorne; kerry
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Hmmmmm.

Regards, Ivan


1 posted on 09/19/2004 1:21:23 AM PDT by MadIvan
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To: Alkhin; agrace; lightingguy; EggsAckley; dinasour; AngloSaxon; Dont Mention the War; Happygal; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 09/19/2004 1:21:39 AM PDT by MadIvan (Gothic. Freaky. Conservative. - http://www.rightgoths.com/)
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To: MadIvan
I've heard the commercial and it's for real! It's a playing card firm and has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Rush.The git who wrote this overtly biased article,is no better than Dandy Dan Rather,who purports lies are facts and forgeries better than the truth.

It's awfully cavalier of the girls to be off campaigning for their father (who is also a Catholic,even though the article stresses that it was Terry who demanded the annulment),while their mother was battling cancer.

3 posted on 09/19/2004 1:32:25 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: MadIvan
Long after his divorce, Kerry went on to annul his marriage to Thorne in deference to his second wife, a Catholic.

Which means that his marriage to his first wife never happened and, for all intents and purposes, his children from that union are illegitimate.

Wonder how that makes the Kerry kids feel? Hell, wonder how it makes his first wife feel?

4 posted on 09/19/2004 1:34:06 AM PDT by Prime Choice (The Religion of Peace ISN'T.)
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To: MadIvan

How the hell can you annul a marriage that produced two kids? I'm confused. Kerry's an even bigger asshole than I previously thought!


5 posted on 09/19/2004 1:37:24 AM PDT by Capricam
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To: Prime Choice
Hell, wonder how it makes his first wife feel?
“It was disrespectful to me, it was aloof to any emotional issues and devoid of any sense of the humanity of what this means to me and the children,” said Thorne.

6 posted on 09/19/2004 1:37:52 AM PDT by Ichneumon ("...she might as well have been a space alien." - Bill Clinton, on Hillary, "My Life", p. 182)
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To: Capricam
How the hell can you annul a marriage that produced two kids?

By paying a priest enough money...

7 posted on 09/19/2004 1:38:25 AM PDT by Ichneumon ("...she might as well have been a space alien." - Bill Clinton, on Hillary, "My Life", p. 182)
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To: Capricam
How the hell can you annul a marriage that produced two kids?

Ask Teddy Kennedy.

8 posted on 09/19/2004 1:41:05 AM PDT by Salvey
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To: Ichneumon
“It was disrespectful to me, it was aloof to any emotional issues and devoid of any sense of the humanity of what this means to me and the children,” said Thorne.

Thanks for passing that along. It confirms what I thought of Kerry all along. The man has not a care for anyone's feelings save his own.

I don't know whether to feel sorry for him or kick him in the 'nads. (Okay, I do know...but I don't want a visit from the Secret Service, okay?)

9 posted on 09/19/2004 1:44:32 AM PDT by Prime Choice (The Religion of Peace ISN'T.)
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To: Capricam
How the hell can you annul a marriage that produced two kids?

Money and political influence work wonders. Sad, but true.

Every time it happens, I lose that much more respect for the church.

10 posted on 09/19/2004 1:45:48 AM PDT by Prime Choice (The Religion of Peace ISN'T.)
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To: MadIvan
Some right-wing commentators have made hay with Kerry’s relationships, however. One of the most biting, Ann Coulter, has blasted the candidate as “just a gigolo”, “living off other men’s money by marrying their wives and daughters”.

This would be a cheap shot if such comments weren't often made in response to the constant portrayal of the Bush family as evil because of its fortune or not being deemed deserving of its wealth.

11 posted on 09/19/2004 1:54:29 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee (The Final Score: Buckhead 1, Talking Head 0)
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To: Prime Choice; Capricam
How the hell can you annul a marriage that produced two kids?

Just say the four magic words: "A Kennedy Sent Me."

12 posted on 09/19/2004 1:56:54 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee (The Final Score: Buckhead 1, Talking Head 0)
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To: MadIvan
In another book, on depression, she described how she had contemplated suicide. “Five months after my 36th birthday, my mind ravaged by corroding voices, my body defeated by bone-rattling panics, I sat on the edge of my bed minutes from taking my own life.”

If I was married to that pompous blowhard, self-agrandizing Kerry, I'd consider killing myself too.

13 posted on 09/19/2004 1:59:58 AM PDT by AmericaUnited
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To: Ichneumon

This makes you able to marry in the Catholic church,according to the rules you must never have had sex with your partner to get an annulment,or as others have statement give a large sum to the Catholic church


14 posted on 09/19/2004 2:12:38 AM PDT by patriciamary
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To: patriciamary

Sorry stated,so in the eyes of the church you were never married.


15 posted on 09/19/2004 2:13:44 AM PDT by patriciamary
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To: MadIvan
"Republican dirty tricks may intensify now..."

"Republican dirty tricks" is another Democrat catchphrase spread throughout the partisan "Newsmedia"--like "gravitas" or "Ken Starr is out of control". Obviously this writer for the Times has picked it up. It implies a wide range of unspeakable doings without saying anything specific. It's designed to be parrotted by unthinking robots, useful idiots, and the malevolent, and the Democrats find many of these ready and willing.

16 posted on 09/19/2004 2:20:08 AM PDT by Savage Beast (The internet is the newspaper of record.)
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To: MadIvan
"...very grateful that people have respected her privacy."

I intend to respect her privacy by completely ignoring her. Can't get more respectful than that.

17 posted on 09/19/2004 2:20:51 AM PDT by Bonaparte (and guess who sighs his lullabies, to nights that never end...)
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To: patriciamary; Prime Choice; Capricam
Just to clear up a common misconception: there is a difference between a civil annulment and a church annulment. I believe that for a civil annulment, non-consummation may be an important consideration (haven't heard of an actual civil annulment in years). A church annulment says that the marriage did not meet the standard for the sacrament of matrimony. While non-consummation may be an argument in some cases, it's far from the only -- or even leading -- argument.

I agree that the church annulment process has been widely abused, outrageously in the U.S. But it has no effect on civil categories: e.g., legitimacy of children, which is strictly in the civil category. This is why a person who gets a church annulment must also divorce to marry again legally.

18 posted on 09/19/2004 2:28:31 AM PDT by maryz
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To: MadIvan

The woman was a fool to marry Kerry, and it's clear he made a dead set at her the minute he found out how much money her family had. He hasn't changed in all these years, and neither has she. We hope and pray she's beaten cancer. It sounds as if she's had a tough time of it.


19 posted on 09/19/2004 2:37:45 AM PDT by hershey
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To: hershey

She's had some rotten luck, certainly - marrying John Kerry, going through having children with him, then being dumped and annulled, then getting cancer.

This isn't a pleasant turn of events at all. I hope she does recover.

Regards, Ivan


20 posted on 09/19/2004 2:39:31 AM PDT by MadIvan (Gothic. Freaky. Conservative. - http://www.rightgoths.com/)
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