OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Donald Trump’s former top political counselor, Kellyanne Conway, and her husband of 22 years, George Conway, are heading to divorce court, according to reports on Friday.
Kellyanne has previously pointed to her husband’s public statements opposing Trump, which occurred while she was working for the president, as a significant factor in the deterioration of their marriage.
“Beltway insiders tell us that they’ve both lawyered up and that the two sides are hashing out the details of the split,” according to Page Six.
In 2016, Kellyanne Conway initially acted as an advisor to candidate Trump during the elections before taking on the role of campaign manager. Meanwhile, her husband helped establish the Lincoln Project, which aimed to prevent Trump from winning the presidency.
The couple got married in 2001 and have four children together. However, their conflicting political views during the Trump presidency strained their relationship.
According to Kellyanne’s 2022 memoir, “Here’s the Deal,” she viewed George’s constant public criticism of the former president as a form of marital betrayal, dubbing it “cheating by tweeting.” She also revealed that Ivanka Trump had recommended they seek couples therapy.
In May of that year, ahead of the book’s release, she told the New York Post that the two of them had separated, but their kids were holding up:
The kids are great. Their father and I just go back and forth [between houses] … so somebody’s always there with them. We’re doing that so that they can be in the schools where they want to be. [The oldest children] wanted to finish their academic careers where they started. And I can’t be that mom who says to my kids, “Be your own person, chart your own path,” and then tell them where they need to live, and what they need to do. I tell their father, “It’s not like we’re driving kids to chemotherapy, we’re not to complain. We can do this.” I think my kids have more discretion and judgment and resilience and self-possession than the adults [in the media] who were … trying to treat my children like they were already adults.
In May 2022, Conway discussed her separation from George, as well as the first time he took a swipe at Trump in a tweet:
What was shocking about that tweet looking back it came shortly after [George] took his name out of contention for Justice, Civil Division with a statement that read: “I called the President to take my name out. I sent him full support, it’s great working in the administration, and of course my wonderful wife.” And five days later, he tweeted it. So it was all very confusing. That’s why I said, “Well, he doesn’t tweet. And he wouldn’t say that.” He wasn’t being consistent with his own actions.
What is very galling … I think it was like the summer of 2018 he was telling the Michael Isikoff “Skullduggery” podcast, “Oh, I knew that this administration was a s–tshow and a dumpster fire by April of that year.” And I was like, “Really? Because then you came to Easter, then you came to Halloween, then you came to a very intimate dinner with the Kushners.”
She also discussed, in her book, how she confronted her husband over his behavior:
I didn’t make vows of fidelity to Donald Trump, and I don’t expect George to make vows of fidelity to Donald Trump; but to “love, honor, and cherish” means exactly that. And that’s where I felt like he was violating our marriage vows. I had a job he supported.
[The betrayal was him] being so public about it: “I can cash you in for attention.” I like to say, I lost my husband to Twitter, and she’s not even hot, has no personality. George and I … always took our marriage vows very seriously. We are faithful in our marriage.
I think it’s a 21st-century problem, in that the competition for my husband’s affection and attention wasn’t another woman, it was a whole platform.
