John McCain's First Marriage

[northernsoul]

Here are the facts according to wikipedia:

By 1964 he was in a relationship with Carol Shepp, a model originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; they had known each other at Annapolis and she had married and then divorced one of his classmates.<20><25> On July 3, 1965, McCain married Shepp in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<19> McCain adopted her two children Doug and Andy,<27> who were five and three years old at the time;<25> he and Carol then had a daughter named Sidney in September 1966.<28><29><30>
...
During their time in Jacksonville, the McCains' marriage began to falter.<84> McCain had extramarital affairs,<84> and he would later say, "My marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war. The blame was entirely mine."<84> His wife Carol would later echo those sentiments, saying "I attribute more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else."<84>
...
In April 1979,<77> while attending a military reception for senators in Hawaii, McCain met and fell in love with Cindy Lou Hensley, 17 years his junior, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona who was the daughter of James Willis Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor, and Marguerite Smith Hensley.<84>
...
McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife Carol in Florida on April 2, 1980.<27> He gave her a generous settlement, including houses in Virginia and Florida and financial support for her ongoing medical treatments resulting from the 1969 automobile accident; they would remain on good terms.<84> McCain and Hensley were married on May 17, 1980<19> in Phoenix, Arizona, with Senators William Cohen and Gary Hart as best man and groomsman.<84> McCain's children were upset with him and did not attend the wedding,<77> but after several years they reconciled with him and Cindy.<77><29> Carol became a personal assistant to Nancy Reagan and later head of the White House Visitors Center.<89>

Alexander, Paul (2002). Man of the People: The Life of John McCain. John Wiley & Sons, p. 19. ISBN 0-471-22829-X.

Feinberg, Barbara Silberdick (2000). John McCain: Serving His Country. Millbrook Press. ISBN 0761319743. p. 18

# ^ a b Alexander (2002), p. 92.
# ^ Alexander (2002), p. 33.
# ^ a b c d e f g Jennifer Steinhauer. "Bridging 4 Decades, a Large, Close-Knit Brood", The New York Times, 2007-12-27. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
# ^ Some sources give the daughter's spelling as Sydney, but this is incorrect; see Faith of My Fathers p. 172 or Meet the McCain Family. John McCain 2008. Retrieved on 2008-01-03.

Dan Nowicki, Bill Muller. "John McCain Report: Arizona, the early years", The Arizona Republic, 2007-03-01. Retrieved on 2007-11-21.

Barbara Gamarekian. "White House Tour Leader Courted and Criticized", The New York Times, 1981-08-30. Retrieved on 2008-02-09.

McCain, Faith of My Fathers, p. 156.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_mccain#Senate_liaison_and_second_marriage

[MADem]

1. You will never get Carol to say a WORD against him. She just won't. NT

[northernsoul]

2. Fair enough. Frankly his personal life wouldn't be any our business

if it weren't for the fact that he wants to make all of our personal lives his business.

[mac2]

7. They are the "Control" guys

[leftofthedial]

3. once a horndog, always a horndog

the repukes made personal sexual proclivities not only a fair, but a *central* political target.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Ironic how many of these "Family Values" wo/men seem to have very few values when it comes to their

OWN families... They just love to spout the words when it comes to the so-called values of others.

[dogtag]

4. I've yet to see

a photo of Carol Shepp. You would think there would be some modeling pics somewhere. There should also be some taken during her stint with Nancy Reagan. Can anyone out there satisfy my curiosity?

[mac2]

6. To be fair many military marriages fail.

I don't consider their marriages a good or bad point but their political agenda is of great concern to me.

My friend's husband was paralyzed by driving into water in Hawaii. He wanted to divorce her since the bills were huge and he would never be able to come home for care. He put himself into a home and didn't want to see her...ever again.

We can't put our judgment on others.

[northernsoul]

9. That's not the issue

The issue is that this politician thinks it is appropriate for the government to interfere with everyone else's private lives in order to enforce his nebulous concept of "traditional marriage," but he himself has violated the most basic principle of marriage (loyalty to the person you're married to).

When politicians want to use the power of the government to intrude upon our private relationships, they lose the right to claim similar privacy for themselves.

[mac2]

10. See post #7

[monmouth]

8. Carol was paid big money (Cindi's??) not to say anything negative about him...n/t