Dem
51
GOP
49
We weren't sure whether to run this as schadenfreude or freudenfreude, so we'll just run it as straight news. Kellyanne Conway and George Conway are getting divorced. Our third reaction (after schadenfreude and freudenfreude) was "it's their own business and it shouldn't be in the news." However, after seeing the front-page stories about the divorce in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Post, CNN, The AP, The Hill, Yahoo! News, The Guardian, and The Hindustan Times, among other media outlets, we thought "at least we are not the source of this sad story." The Conways have been married for 22 years and have four children.
It is interesting that foxnews.com doesn't seem to be covering it. On the other hand, there is bigger news now, including Buster Murdaugh's classmate, Anthony Fauci, conservative counties that want to secede, mothers angry at a teachers' union, Chris Rock, China's military, and the lab leak:
It is amazing they lasted so long as a couple when Kellyanne spent 4 years buttering up and defending Donald Trump as a top adviser and George spent 4 years viciously attacking Trump (including being one of the founders of the Lincoln Project, which made brilliant ads skewering Trump). Dinner conversation at chez Conway must have been interesting.
Their daughter, Claudia, couldn't take this. In August 2020, when she was 16, Claudia (a TikTok star, so not a very private person herself) announced that unless her parents stopped behaving like total jerks, she was going to court to petition the judge to declare her an emancipated minor. This is the legal process for getting a divorce from your parents. An emancipated minor is functionally an adult and can do almost anything adults can do, including entering into binding legal contracts and keeping all earnings from work. It is most commonly done to get older, responsible teenagers out of abusive homes. The Conways pulled back a bit and Claudia didn't file.
Donald Trump congratulated Kellyanne on her divorce from "her wacko husband." George hit back with: "Looking forward to seeing you in New York at E. Jean's trial next month! Hugs and kisses." This is a reference to the upcoming trial at which E. Jean Carroll is suing Trump for defamation because he says she is lying when she claims he raped her.
Marriages where the couple belongs to different parties are common, although partisanship is so strong now that there are separate dating services for Democrats and Republicans. Interestingly, the Democratic site offers four options: man seeking woman, woman seeking man, man seeking man, and woman seeking woman. The Republican site offers only two options. We don't want to spoil it for you, so we aren't going to tell you which ones here. It used to be that people wanted someone from their own religion. Now the big dividing line is politics.
Sometimes politically mixed marriages work. James Carville, a top Democratic adviser, and Mary Matalin, a top Republican adviser, have been married for 30 years. A reporter once asked Carville how they managed it. He said that they never talked politics at home. (V)