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.
Funny as hell, didn't someone say that Kerry might have been dishonorably discharged and then waited for a few years so he could re-instate papers so he could look like he was honorably discharged? Seems like the same situation here folks.
What would someone to the right of Rush be considered?
Not to defend Kerry. But he's not the only one who's married someone for money. Believe me, there are tons of other people who do this to. I'm sure you can find tons of both Democrats and Republicans who do this. People who are known and not known.
What would someone to the right of Rush be considered?
NeoCon
Also, Teresa Heinz has a prenup with Kerry. If she passes away, all the Heinz money goes to her kids not Kerry.
What new "attacks" are to appear because she's clear of cancer?
Annulment greatly wounded my son's stepson. This is an unbelievable practice, especially if it is for money.
"What would someone to the right of Rush be considered?"
That would be almost any Democrat of forty years ago.
Julia Thorne can't be too angry with Kerry. I saw her brother on TV this week, defending Kerry. He is working on Kerry's campaign campaign.
Her brother was saying that Steve Pitkin was a liar...
Senator Kerry maintains the lid on the reporting of his prostate cancer that was diagnosed and treated some 18 months ago. He refuses to release medical records and claims a complete cure on the basis of his physicians's findings.
There is a difference between a legal annulment and a church annulment. Catholic annulment does NOT mean that the children from the marriage are illegitimate. It means that there was some spiritual impediment that prevented a true union from taking place. It has no bearing on the legitimacy of the children.
That could mean that one member of the couple was under age. It could mean that one member of the couple harbaored reservations about the marriage -- spoken, or unspoken. it could mean that one member of the couple did not intend to enter into a Catholic marriage, i.e. that one member of the couple did not intend to welcome children into the union. It could mean that one member of the couple all along thought that divorce was an option if things did not work out.
There are many other reasons that can be brought before the church tribunal in a petition for an annulment. Some of the requirements are statements from witnesses who know the couple before and after their marriage, as well as from the parents of both husband and the wife.
The church will not even CONSIDER annulment until the civil divorce is complete.
A common misconception. My daughter's annulment cost about $200 and those fees were for the paperwork and the time of a church lawyer to help her through the process.
That's what being around John Kerry will do to a person. Explains a lot about Teresa's psychological imbalances.
that's easy.... be a catholic in Massachusettes with lots of money... you know, the same church that covered up the homosexual priests by taking money from parishoners and paying off lawyers and families.
jeez, didn't you know that the church can't be corrupted? Kennedy, Kerry, Cuomo=good catholic
Mel Gibson, heterosexual males, conservative= bad Catholics
simple
"How the hell can you annul a marriage that produced two kids"?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$...
and... FAVORS!
LLS
"What would someone to the right of Rush be considered"?
Uhhh, a Buchananite? ;-)
LLS
Life with Jean-Fraude...one would be led to conclude that this is his approach/attitude to his lifes work.
Sane!
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