In her first one-on-one interview, the wife of former parliamentary speaker and MP for Fisher Peter Slipper says she is proud of her husband's "strength" and "tenacity" and confirms she is "absolutely" interested in becoming a politician.

Inge Slipper, who was in Los Angeles when allegations broke of the Ashby and cab charge affairs, says many people don't know the truth and only see her husband through the media's eye.

Speaking for the first time last week in the defence of her husband, Mrs Slipper surprised the public with her candid comments to reporters that her marriage was "real".

"I just wanted to put the other side of the story out there," she said.

"I'm not defending myself because, you know, I know my marriage. I know my husband loves me. I know I love my husband. So there's nothing really to defend."

In an extended interview with ABC broadcaster Karyn Wood, Inge continued her plea to the public to see another side of her husband who will recontest, as an Independent, the Sunshine Coast seat of Fisher.

"I'm married to a man who is extremely calm and he's very peaceful. I guess he gets that from his religious background and also his spiritual background as well; the Dalai Lama has had a big influence on Peter's gentleness and his peacefulness and his calmness," said Inge.

During the hour-long interview, and sometimes tearful account, Inge gave insight into what it was like when the news broke of the allegations.

"Yes I would have to say there were harsh words at times, because you get so frustrated.

"The powerful forces are on one side and me and Peter and our staff and our families, and that's it, we don't have the capacity or the financial wherewithall to deal with an onslaught like we dealt with.

"So he let me rant and rave a little bit and then he'd give me a big hug and he'd say, 'We'll get there, we'll get there'."

Mrs Slipper said the time was "surreal" when her husband was accused of sexually harassing his employee James Ashby.

"I had no idea what I'd be facing ... Peter is such a gentle, beautiful, really gentle guy and he was worried and ... he wanted to protect me. So he didn't say too much and the first I knew of it was when we were hit by the media in Los Angeles on the way home. It was so surreal, beyond your wildest nightmare; I just couldn't understand what was going on. Everything that was being thrown out there, it was so untrue; my husband and I have this wonderful marriage and we work hard at it, we love each other.

"I just remember thinking this is going to change my life, forever, and I wasn't sure what those changes were going to be; and I remember getting to Sydney airport and everybody got off the plane and I remember hugging Peter and telling him that I loved him very much, and that we'd get through this no matter what ...and so far, incredibly, we have.

"That's a testament to the strength of our marriage and a testament to the strength of both people who are involved in the marriage. If you have something worth fighting for, you fight for it."

But Mrs Slipper said the ordeal has taken a toll on her personally.

"I've been hurt so much, you can't imagine. Only people who go through something like this will ever know; and one of things that I realised too was that it was like a vortex, it was just pulling things in and I really didn't want anyone else to get hurt. I mean my view of living is about, 'you do unto others as you would like done to you' ...and I guess that's a philosophy that I've grown up with due to my amazing, beautiful family, they are just incredible."

She said it's been difficult being the wife of a politician.

"I tell you what is impossible; it is that you can't have opinions. You lose your opinions, you lose your views, you can't say them because people have this immediate view that what comes out of your mouth is what Peter believes in and that's not the case.

"I love listening to what people have to say, it's one of my strengths, listening, and you do want to articulate what they're saying; but unfortunately I can't say it out in public and that's frustrating for a woman who's got a brain and can use it," said Inge.

A common belief that Mrs Slipper holds personal plans to run for office in the future, she confirmed for the first time that she'd "absolutely" be interested.

"I have this love-hate relationship with politics. I think the smartest place for me is at the federal level because it's what I know, it's what I've been involved in, it's what I've lived over the last eight to nine years.

"I think for me one of the saddest things about this country is how many of our children are in foster care; and I know that's more a state issue but as the Speaker's wife, the thing that I really wanted to push, or the project that I was looking at was to open up some discussion about foster care, about adoption.

"I have friends who have been trying to adopt and it's been an incredibly difficult process and that is something that can be at a federal level possibly changed.

"And there was also a vested interest in there also because Peter and I have had IVF and we haven't been successful. I would love to have children and unfortunately I'm one of the girls who grew up being told you could do anything, or be anything ...and I had a career and then I left it a bit late to have children, and there a lot of women like myself in that situation and it breaks my heart to see that it's impossible to adopt in this country and yet we have 37,000 children in foster care," said Inge.

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