Gingrich's Daughters Defend Father Over 'Open Marriage' Interview

By Kris Coombs, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, January 19, 2012

Two daughter's of the Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich are defending their father's name which stands to be disgraced in an upcoming ABC News interview featuring Gingrich's ex-wife, Marianne Ginther.

In the interview, which is set to air on Thursday, two days before the South Carolina Republican primary, Ginther says Gingrich asked her for an open marriage.

Jackie Cushman and Kathy Lubbers, children from Gingrich's first marriage, sent a statement to ABC on Wednesday, proposing that their ex-stepmother may be spreading false information.

"Anyone who has had that experience understands it is a personal tragedy filled with regrets, and sometimes differing memories of events," the women said.

"We will not say anything negative about our father's ex-wife. He has said before, privately and publicly, that he regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to people he loves."

Ginther spoke very candidly to ABC about the reasons for her dissolved marriage to the former speaker and said he petitioned her for an open relationship upon admitting to a six-year affair with now third wife, Callista Bisek.

"And I just stared at him and he said, 'Callista doesn't care what I do,'" Marianne Gingrich told ABC News, who released some excerpts from the interview. "He wanted an open marriage and I refused."

Ginther and Gingrich ended their marriage in 2000.

Gingrich, whose philandering past has been the subject of public scrutiny since his campaign began, has also been accused by Ginther of proposing to her before his first divorce was officially finalized, the Daily News reported.

"My two daughters Kathy and Jackie have sent a letter to the president of ABC News, saying from a family perspective they think this is totally wrong," Gingrich said, according to the Daily News. "They think ABC should not air anything like this and that intruding into family things that are more, that are more than a decade old are simply wrong."