By Sarah B. Boxer and Gabriel Noble



Ann Romney has 23 grandchildren, a 46-year-marriage, and two presidential campaigns under her belt.

She also has a debilitating neurological disease, which has, at times, left her “crushed to dust.”

In her new memoir, “In This Together,” Romney details her struggles with multiple sclerosis, which she was diagnosed with in 1998. The diagnoses and ensuing physical struggles left her deeply depressed, she tells Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric.

“I think that’s the part of the disease that people don’t understand,” Romney says. “It strips you of who you are. And it leaves you just so debilitated and so fatigued and so overwhelmed by the smallest of tasks.” At times, even the thought of opening a stack of mail seemed overwhelming.

In the book, Romney writes about being “in the midst of a deep depression, wishing I would be struck down by a disease that would kill me quickly rather than slowly losing control of my body.” Romney details a regimen of medication, therapy and horseback riding that helped her through the illness.

Her husband, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was by her side every step of the way. The two were high school sweethearts and have gone through the highs and lows of the disease together.

She describes one doctor appointment in which the couple asked about the difficulties of being intimate if the disease worsened. The physician told them a story about a couple that found “great satisfaction” in simply linking their pinkies.

“Mitt looked at him as if he were crazy,” Romney writes.

In the book, Romney also writes candidly about her conversion to Mormonism, an unexpected pregnancy and miscarriage, and learning that her mother had planned to abort her.

It doesn’t venture far into politics, though Couric asks Romney what she thinks about the 2016 election. Romney says she knows all of the candidates running for president personally, with the exception of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and that she thinks fondly of all of them.

When pressed by Couric on who her favorite candidate would be, Romney can’t help but blurt out: “Well, it was Mitt, and he’s not running.”