Newt Gingrich & Marianne Ginther: The Hypocrisy Divorce That Haunted a Speaker

What Happened

Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the face of the Republican revolution, asked his second wife Marianne for a divorce in 1999. The timing was extraordinary: Gingrich had been leading the impeachment of President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair while simultaneously conducting his own extramarital affair with congressional staffer Callista Bisek, 23 years his junior.

Marianne later revealed in a devastating 2012 interview that Gingrich had proposed an 'open marriage' arrangement rather than a divorce. She refused. She also stated that Gingrich had asked his first wife, Jackie Battley, for a divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery — a claim Gingrich’s daughters from his first marriage have disputed regarding the specific circumstances but not the fundamental timeline.

The divorce from Marianne was complicated by her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, which she disclosed publicly. While MS was not technically relevant to the legal proceedings in Georgia (a no-fault state), it created devastating public optics. The settlement terms were never disclosed, but the case destroyed Gingrich’s moral authority on family values — a platform he had built his political brand upon.

Gingrich married Callista Bisek in 2000, and she later became U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. The case became the textbook example of political hypocrisy in divorce — and a reminder that the circumstances surrounding a divorce can have consequences far beyond the courtroom, affecting careers, public standing, and historical legacy.

Legal Breakdown: Adultery & Political Hypocrisy

What This Means for Your Divorce