Marianne said she realized Newt's affair was going on in their apartment in D.C. Ex-wife: Newt wanted 'open marriage'

Marianne Gingrich says her ex-husband Newt Gingrich wanted an “open marriage” in bombshell interviews out Thursday.

“I said to him, ‘Newt, we’ve been married a long time’ and he said, ‘Yes, but you want me all to yourself. Callista doesn’t care what I do,’” she told ABC’s “Nightline,” referring to a staffer with whom her husband was having an affair.


“He was asking to have an open marriage, and I refused,” she added.

ABC released excerpts of the interview Thursday morning and is set to air more this evening.

Campaigning in Beaufort, S.C., Newt Gingrich blasted the interview as “tawdry” and cut off questioning about his ex-wife’s comments. He told a voter who confronted him about his infidelities at a town hall meeting that “I’ve been very open about my life. I’ve been very open about mistakes I have made, I’ve been very open about needing to go to God for forgiveness and to see reconciliation.” He said he wouldn’t address the issue any further.

In the interview, ABC Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross asked Marianne, “He wanted an open marriage?”

“Yeah, that I accept the fact he has somebody else in his life,” she said.

Marianne said she told Newt, “No, no. That is not a marriage.”

Marianne told “Nightline” about her “shock” at her husband’s behavior, and said she realized his affair with Callista was going on “in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington,” according to ABC.

“He always called me at night and always ended with, ‘I love you.’ Well, she was listening,” she said.

Marianne also said Newt asked for the divorce only months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

“He also was advised by the doctor when I was sitting there that I was not to be under stress. He knew,” Marianne said.

ABC News spokesman David Ford said Thursday the network did not pay Marianne for the interview that will be airing tonight on Nightline. “The answer is emphatically no,” Ford said.

Marianne also spoke to The Washington Post on Thursday, saying Newt asked her for an open marriage or divorce at the same time he was giving speeches on family and moral values.

Newt called on the phone on May 11, 1999, and said, “I want a divorce,” she told the paper.

Marianne said she couldn’t believe it and asked, “Is there anybody else?”

“He was quiet. Within two seconds, when he didn’t immediately answer, I knew,” she said.

The day after, Marianne noted, Gingrich gave a speech on “The Demise of American Culture.”

“How could he ask me for a divorce on Monday and within 48 hours give a speech on family values and talk about how people treat people?” she told the Post.

Marianne said the couple visited a marriage counselor but Newt didn’t seem certain of what he wanted to do. She said he asked her for the open marriage so he could be with whomever he wanted, and she said no.

Marianne told the Post she spoke out now — days before the South Carolina primary — “so Newt couldn’t create me as an evil, awful person, which was starting to happen.”

In Beaufort on Thursday, when the voter at a town hall meeting confronted him about his past infidelities and asked how people should come to grips with his “personal judgment lapses,” Gingrich responded, “Sure, look I think this is a decision you have to make.

“I’ve been very open about my life. I’ve been very open about mistakes I have made, I’ve been very open about needing to go to God for forgiveness and to see reconciliation,” he continued. “Callista and I have a wonderful relationship, we are very close to our two daughters and their husbands and we’re very close to our two grandchildren, Maggie and Robert. I am 68 years old, I am a grandfather.

“And when we entered this race, we had to think about this for a year, we knew we’d get beaten up, we knew we’d get lied about, we knew we’d get smeared, we knew we’d get nasty attack ads, and we decided the country was worth the pain,” he added.

While speaking to the press, Gingrich said his personal marital history is “an issue I’ve confronted every time it comes up, and I’ve confronted it exactly the same way every time it comes up and people seem to be satisfied with it — if you watched the audience just now.”

Gingrich said he would not address any further questions about his ex-wife.

“Look, look I’m not going to say anything about Marianne,” he said. “My two daughters have already written a letter to ABC complaining about this as tawdry and inappropriate. Both of my daughters are prepared to speak on the record to any of you who would like to talk to them and several other people who knew the situation are prepared to speak on the record. I’m not getting involved.”

When pressed to elaborate, Gingrich replied, “That’s my answer.”

In a 2010 interview with Esquire magazine, Marianne had said she didn’t think Newt was fit to be president but didn’t provide specifics.

“There’s no way,” she told Esquire. “He could have been president. But when you try and change your history too much, and try and recolor it because you don’t like the way it was or you want it to be different to prove something new … you lose touch with who you really are. You lose your way.”

Moving to defend himself even before the ABC interview with his ex-wife was aired, Gingrich on Thursday morning dismissed questions about his marriage to Marianneg, pre-emptively waving off any “20-year-old stories” she might tell.

“I’m not going to say anything negative about Marianne,” said Gingrich on NBC’s “Today.” “I think the people who have known me a long time are credible on my character. I think we have lots of folks willing to speak about this. I’m not going to.

“People will have to judge me … but 16- and 20-year-old stories, you know, we have real stories this week on the failure of the Obama administration,” he added.

Gingrich said his daughters stood by him and that he had asked ABC not to air the interview with Marianne.

“My two daughters … have sent a letter to the president of ABC News, saying from a family perspective, they think this is totally wrong,” Gingrich said. “They think ABC should not air anything like this, and that intruding into family things that are a decade, more than a decade old, are simply wrong.”

The former speaker said people will see that he has close ties to his family, his lack of a relationship with his ex-wife notwithstanding.

“[Voters will see] I’m a 68-year-old grandfather, they see how close I am to my wife, Callista, they see how close I am to my daughters and son-in-laws, to my two grandchildren — Maggie and Robert — they’ll have to make their mind up,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich was far more eager to talk about his recent surge in the polls, claiming that there is a poll that will come out Thursday that shows him 2 percentage points ahead of Romney.

“I’m clearly within 5 points now of beating Romney,” Gingrich said. “The only effective conservative vote is to vote for Newt Gingrich. …So South Carolina conservatives, if they want to stop a Massachusetts moderate, only have one effective vote. That’s a mathematical reality.”

ABC’s Ross told WJLA in Arlington, Va., on Thursday that Marianne is still “very angry” about Newt’s betrayal.

“He wanted a wife and a mistress, according to Marianne, and she says she refused and points to that as an example of what she thinks are his flaws, his moral character that is not good enough to be president, she says,” Ross told WJLA’s Scott Thuman.

Ross said ABC had pursued the interview with Marianne since November, and she finally agreed last Friday. According to Ross, Marianne wanted to speak out now to “make voters aware of what she knows about the marriage and a man who is now preaching family values on the campaign trail.”

He also said Marianne did not say she gave the interview in an attempt to end Newt’s campaign, “but clearly she wanted this to be known to voters, she wanted to do it during the primary season.”

Ginger Gibson in Beaufort, S.C., contributed to this report.