I think some of your Marianne/Callista chronology is off. If Newt and Marianne had been separated for 6 years by 1993, why was she with him at virtually every press conference when he was Speaker (eff. Jan. 1995)? Just as he now endlessly says “Callista and I,” back then it was “Marianne and I,” as if they’re a team. That doesn’t make sense.
Not that I much care, other than as it seems to have damaged Newt’s chances to be our nominee, which is a real loss, both to the GOP and to the USA.
The Gingrich’s were seperated for years, then she pops back up into his life when he becomes Speaker.
They were married for 17 years but by all accounts it was a relationship made in h***.
Miserable is not strong enough of a word.
“If Newt and Marianne had been separated for 6 years by 1993, why was she with him at virtually every press conference when he was Speaker (eff. Jan. 1995)?”
Marianne, after leaving Newt in 1987 and filing for divorce (but not proceeded with it), went back to Newt in 1994, after more than six years of separation, because he had become the Speaker of the House and she liked being in the spotlights. Newt, I don’t know why, accepted her back, but the marriage link was already irremediably broken ... Finally he filed for divorce in 1998, the divorce was finalized in 1999, and in 2000 he married Callista.
It wasn't a good time for Newt to have a "scandalous" long drawn-out divorce proceedings (which he should have finalized long before, but the "bad, mean Newt" was financially supporting her all through these years, regardless of separation, including having much of his income from books and lectures being in the bank accounts in her name). No good deed goes unpunished.
He found her a cushy job in D.C., they "reconciled" and she was basically a "political function wife" for events and appearances, until that time when he could get divorced from Marianne ("ex-wife-to-be") and get married to Callista ("wife-in-waiting"). During that period (c. 1995) she actually threatened him of "destroying his career with one interview" (great "wife" eh?)
Not the ideal situation, of course, but in the period of 1994-1998 he didn't have time for divorce, the situation that his long-estranged "wife" Marianne decided to exploit... When Newt said few years ago (after meeting with James Dobson) that he "made mistakes in his personal life because of his love for the country," he wasn't kidding. It cost him during the divorce, too, Marianne squeezed just about everything she could from that "marriage".
The "opportunity" to become finally free of gold-digging Marianne presented itself after 1998 elections, when everybody on the right and the left decided to blame him and his push for Clinton's impeachment for the loss of some House seats. He resigned from the House in 1999, filed and finalized the divorce from Marianne, moved to VA and married Callista.
Do click on the links I have in my original post, as well as well as the link to the blogger's article in my first post - they provide a lot clearer and more complete picture and details of the "political accommodation" of Marianne during that time period (no, it wasn't as she claimed, an "open marriage").
Additional links re the same matter, with much more details:
Jackie Gingrich Cushman : Setting the Record Straight (about my dad's first marriage) - FR, posts #55, #56, 2011 May 15
"Cain/Gingrich 2012?" - FR, posts #64, #69, 2011 October 06
Dobson decried Callista Gingrich as 'eight-year mistress' at conservative confab - FR, post #271, 2012 January 17