Barbara Bush was long considered a powerful, strong, stoic First Lady who, for years before her death last April, had proudly and capably led a great family as her husband — and then, her son — led the United States of America at the White House.
But while Barbara is no doubt remembered fondly for her strength, behind the scenes, there were apparently moments of deep, deep despair and depression. And according to a new book by author Susan Page, those moments of deep darkness were caused at least in part by her husband George H.W. Bush‘s alleged mistress!
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In her forthcoming book The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty, out next Tuesday, Page drops a bombshell about how Barbara long reacted to the presence of a woman named Jennifer Fitzgerald, who was a long-time aide — and, some thought, a long-time mistress — to her husband.
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According to the book, things all started in 1975, after the Bush family had returned from a political appointment in China, where George had served as chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the Asian nation under then-President Gerald Ford. But while that time in China was, according to Barbara, “the best of times,” she very quickly “fell into darkness” back in the United States when George was assigned to direct the then-embattled Central Intelligence Agency.
Page writes about how Barbara fell into a deep depression upon returning to the U.S., in part because George was keeping secrets from her — as required, since he was running such a secretive organization like the CIA — though she struggled to reconcile her trust in him as she spiraled downwards into “darkness” (below):
“Barbara Bush found herself falling into the worst personal crisis she had faced since daughter Robin had died more than two decades earlier. Overwhelmed by pain and loneliness, she contemplated suicide. She would pull over to the side of the road until the impulse to plow into a tree or drive into the path of an oncoming car had passed.”
Wow! So scary!
Before her death last April, Barbara corroborated that part of the story herself, telling the author about those times of major despair in the late 1970s (below):
“I felt terrible. I would pull over and park so I wouldn’t go hit a tree. I really wasn’t brave enough to do that, but that’s why I pulled over, so I wouldn’t do that, or I wouldn’t run into another car … I almost wonder why [George] didn’t leave me.”
Thankfully, she was able to eventually get help, and her crisis passed — with, the author notes, Barbara having mostly hid her depression from family members and friends. Only George really knew what was going on with his wife at the time.
Once the worst darkness was lifted, Barbara began to theorize about “a toxic combination of factors” that had led to it in the first place — a hormonal imbalance, she wondered, or maybe the couple’s children having grown up and left home. Things like that. But Page notes that those around Barbara explicitly felt there was a very specific cause for her depression: Jennifer Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald, you see, had worked for George for decades in one capacity or another, mostly as an aide who was in very close quarters with the soon-to-be President. Bush had never been willing to dismiss the woman, citing her as strong and capable, but Barbara allegedly saw something more sinister in her at the time.
Once the affair was first speculated by the press after Barbara’s bout with depression, Page notes that the future First Lady wrote in her diary at the time (below):
“My own opinion is that Jennifer really does hurt George. His eyes really glaze over when you mention her name. She is just what he wants, he says and says the hell with it all.”
Yikes… not great, George!
Even the soon-to-be President himself would later admit how close he was to Jennifer, lending some credence to Barbara and others who thought something might have been going on (below):
“I was very close to her for a while. And liked her. I knew she was difficult, and knew other people didn’t like her. She was hard to work with for other people around her.”
But ultimately, no evidence of an affair was ever uncovered, and as time went on, cooler heads eventually prevailed. When Bush won the Presidency in 1988, he finally agreed to move Fitzgerald off his direct staff, naming the woman as Deputy Chief of Protocol at the State Department.
That lessened the tension considerably for Barbara, who Page reports had years later changed her tune from worrying about Fitzgerald to actually feeling sorry for the woman.
For what it’s worth, everybody has long since denied the affair; George repeatedly denied it up until his death last year, and Jennifer — who has since retired and is living in Florida — has also strongly denied that anything ever happened.
Fitzgerald spoke to Page about the alleged affair for the book, saying (below):
“It simply didn’t happen. I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for the entire Bush family.”
Well then.
Affair or not, there’s plenty of interesting insight into the fascinating life lived by Barbara Bush… and the behind-the-scenes tensions and struggles are certainly eye-opening.
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[Image via WENN]