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McCain polygamist, married to first wife when he applied for licence to marry second, report says

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Republican presidential nominee John McCain may have been married to his first wife when he obtained a marriage licence to wed Cindy McCain.

According to the Los Angeles Times, court documents show that the Arizona senator received a licence to marry his second wife about a month before a judge granted his divorce from Carol McCain in April 1980.

The report contradicts McCain's account from his 2002 memoir Worth Fighting For, in which he said he divorced Carol McCain in February 1980.

McCain has acknowledged he was legally married to Carol when he began seeing Cindy; he has said the two were separated. McCain's divorce petition stated he and Carol lived together until January 7, 1980, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A McCain campaign spokesman declined to comment on McCain's split from his first wife.

"The senator has always taken responsibility for it," said the spokesman, Tucker Bounds.

In the late 1970s, McCain was a US navy captain when his marriage to Carol, a former model who was nearly crippled in an auto accident during his captivity in Vietnam, began to fall apart. He later told his biographer, Robert Timberg, that he had engaged in a series of extra-marital "dalliances".

In 1979, McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, the scion of an Arizona beer distributing family, at a Honolulu reception. They wed the following year. McCain retired from the navy in 1981 and, aided by his new wife's fortune from her family's beer distribution business, launched his political career with a successful run for the US House the following year. He was elected to the US Senate in 1986.

McCain's swift remarriage alienated him from Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who in winter and spring 1980 were campaigning for the White House. The Reagans were close to Carol McCain, according to the Los Angeles Times.

John and Cindy McCain have four children together. He and Carol had one daughter.

This is not the first time during the 2008 campaign that rumours of infidelity have plagued McCain.

In February, the New York Times published an article suggesting McCain had had an inappropriate affair with a telecommunications lobbyist. McCain and the lobbyist denied they had a romantic relationship.
bansheewail

11 responses // McCain polygamist, married to first wife when he applied for licence to marry second, report says

  • McCain could be worse than Bush, believe it or not.
    bansheewail
  • Don't you love election time? All the dirt hits the fan during election time. I am pulling up a chair and making popcorn- let the drama begin!
    dedemetal
    1 response to this
  • The second wife in this kind of relationship usually gets what she deserves. A Cheater.
    Marilynn_Murray
  • I love the so called "Family Values" that conservatives extol.
    menmykoko
  • Well now he blames the fact of his affairs on the fact that his first wife was beginning to fall apart. He started going out on her the minute he saw that she was not beautiful any more though she kept her car accident a secret so that it would not upset him while he was in Vietnam and she would have accepted him for his own frankenstein appearence. She had 23 operations and is 5 inches shorter. She went through a windshield. Ross Perot paid all of her hospital bills . The Regans were good friends of Carols and never forgave McCain. One look at her and he was off. So where is the religious right when you need them...... not adopting children.
    micluc
  • He can't keep his affairs together how can he run our country?

    Now who has the biggest dirt pile?
    Tradiggy
  • If the Reagan's hated a fellow Republican (mcLame) for his lack of commitment and treatment of his wife - I'll say I have more respect for the Reagan's sensibility on this issue than a truck load of mccains.
    VoyagerFilms
  • Wouldn't it be funny if Cindy publicly dumped his stupid old ass in a couple of months. Kicked him out to live in a studio apartment, left him to drive a straight talk express Pinto station wagon, and fly around on a lawn chair tied to balloons. One can hope for that.
    Marilynn_Murray
  • Good thought Marylin - but it'll never happen, he's her supplier and protects her from prosecution - and he's taking some kind of elixir also.
    recommended by  Marilynn_Murray
    VoyagerFilms
  • I never thought of that. That would be a reason a decent looking woman would tolerate that wore out mean spirited old creep. I'd still like to see her dump him. The balloon chair flight just sticks in my head to cheer me up.
    Marilynn_Murray

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