Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been released from Rikers Island jail, and can now look forward to returning home to his loving wife, Anne Sinclair.
According to a profile in the New York Times, Sinclair has been standing by this man since 1991 when the two were married.
It was like any other fairy tale. She was a famous TV journalist, interviewing the likes of Bill Clinton and Madonna, “she was married in a room with a bust of Marianne – the symbol of freedom and republican pride in France – that was modeled on her”, and then she quit her show after 13 years “to avoid a conflict of interest when her husband became finance minister in 1997”:
“When you spend 13 years interviewing politicians,” she said then, “you aren’t fascinated by power anymore.”
Still, she was the driving force behind Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s political ambitions, and her wealth, inherited from her grandfather, the art dealer Paul Rosenberg, enabled the couple to live lavishly and independently, with two extraordinary apartments in Paris, a $4 million house in Georgetown and a riad in Marrakesh.
She also helped finance a group of political advisers, press aides and Internet sites that were preparing the ground for what was soon supposed to be a triumphant return to France for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, to begin a race for the presidency many thought he would win.
“She always wanted to prove that, 75 years after Léon Blum, the French were capable of electing a Jew,” a friend told Le Monde. “In her eyes, that would be a formidable revenge on history.”
Who would’ve guessed that instead of riding off into the sunset in a sports car of some kind, she would now be standing by Mr. Strauss-Kahn during multiple allegations of rape and sexual assault?
She was in Paris awaiting the birth of her first grandchild when, according to Paris Match, she got a call from her husband about 11 p.m., or 5 p.m. in New York, just after the police pulled him off an Air France plane about to leave the gate.
Her face turned pale. He reportedly told her there was “a serious problem.”
That Sunday, Sinclair issued a statement saying she fully supported her husband and then flew to New York to pay his $1 million bail (among other costs).
She also issued a statement saying she did not “believe for a single second the accusations of sexual assault by my husband”, and then flew to New York to pay his $1 million bail, among other costs, ” including an apartment, an electronic bracelet and armed guards provided by a company authorized by the court.”
However, now the couple is responsible for two very expensive apartments and her husband has been kicked out of his lush pad and is currently “staying in quarters provided by the company that is in charge of his security” (which doesn’t exactly scream ‘prime real estate’).
And lest you think Ms. Sinclair was unaware of her husband’s history of being less than faithful, you can rest assured that she was very, very aware. In 2006, she was quoted as saying:
“I’m even proud of it. It’s important to seduce, for a politician. As long as he is still attracted to me, and I to him, it is sufficient.”
More recently, Sinclair wrote blog entry (that makes me feel awkward and sad when I read it) on April 30 about the royal wedding stating:
“I can understand those who didn’t miss a crumb. As if, quite simply, we were like children who, before going to sleep, want a tale, a story with a princess and a dream, because real life catches up with you soon enough. …”
Eesh.
It’s important to remember that it’s entirely possible Sinclair was and is truly unaware of her husbands activities outside of his affection for “skirt chasing”. Unfortunately, women do marry rapists they do not know are rapists, just as women marry serial killers and so forth.
But whatever she knows or doesn’t know, it’s likely she’ll find out about most of it in the weeks to come.
Earlier: The IMF’s Questionable Office Culture
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