Anne is a veteran, award-winning journalist and author whose work has raised public awareness, broadened reader engagement, and resulted in systemic change

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INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

EDUCATION

POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

WOMEN AND POLITICS

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

MENTAL ILLNESS

 

PARENTING

 

BookS

“A journalist explores the motivations and emotional constructs of political wives who chose to stay in their marriages—in some cases, only for a while—after being confronted with their husbands’ infidelities .... Skillful prose makes the dishy profiles an engaging read .... A lively political book ...." Kirkus Reviews


Why They Stay is about the lives of politically married women who have stood by their men after sex scandals. It covers Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Silda Wall Spitzer, Huma Abedin Weiner and more.

Looking back on the path chosen by the women profiled in this book, we have the evidence to see a pattern as old as the dynastic maneuverings of England’s medieval queens. The women married to the "royalty" of our times—politicians—make cold calculations in order to hold onto their "thrones" and their families’ history-making potential. Why They Stay argues that women in the limelight remain loyal to their men, because of complex, often unconscious forces. From mapping a path to power to laudable notions of holding the family together, the author examines the uniquely challenging Faustian bargains that political wives grapple with, even as the public spotlight illuminates their every move.

Winner of multiple national book honors, including in the categories of Women’s Issues and Current Events. Audio and e-book versions are available.


 

Clarion Review

Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5

Why They Stay includes entertaining fodder for better understanding what bargains highly successful women make in order to endure in scandal-plagued marriages.

Knowing that is hard to understand why so many strong, smart, accomplished women stick with their political husbands through humiliating sex scandals, Anne Michaud’s revised edition of the social science book Why They Stay adds analysis of Melania and Donald Trump’s marriage and updates on seven other crisis-ridden American and British power couples.

The book probes the backgrounds and motivations of its high-profile example couples, and theorizes about why their marital arrangements endure. It compares its eight focal women to a fifteenth-century commoner, Elizabeth Woodville, who became a powerful queen and royal matriarch after the dust cleared from England’s bloody War of the Roses. Known as the White Queen, Woodville embodied many characteristics that Michaud sees reflected in her case studies six centuries later. The book assigns each of its eight subjects a White Queen Quotient in its chapter summaries.

The book states that there are different social norms for the ambitious White Queens, some of whom wanted to claw up to the top, others of whom wanted to remain in the upper echelons of political and economic statuses. Each couple’s motivations and psychological makeup are discussed in detail—and with dishy anecdotes and quotes. The profiles include backgrounds of each husband and wife, from their childhoods through to the present, alongside theories about their psychological motivations. The book also covers the political and financial rewards that the most loyal White Queens receive, from federal judgeships to renegotiated pre-nuptial agreements to sweetheart corporate and real estate deals.

Michaud’s observations of the women’s behavior are opinionated and trenchant. She reads between the lines of their statements in media, teasing out new considerations of their behavior. Familiar examples, including Hillary Clinton, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Eleanor Roosevelt, are handled alongside less familiar figures, including Wendy Vitter, the wife of a former Louisiana House member and senator who enjoyed being diapered and treated like an infant by sex workers; and Marion Stein, the wife of Britain’s 1970s Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, whose gay (and then illegal) extramarital relationship was uncovered during a bizarre incident involving a hitman and a murdered dog.

The book’s conclusions are enlightening and fascinating for political junkies, but also dispiriting and disillusioning for feminists. White Queens are shown to be rewarded tangibly with powerful positions, social perks, and financial gains; there can be smarmy, ugly Faustian bargains too, with heavy emotional fallout and other costs to themselves and their children. Only one of the examples ever divorces her philandering husband, further underscoring how different patriarchal rules apply to men and women. If the gender roles were reversed: it’s hard to even imagine an aggrieved husband “acting as a prop” at the obligatory post-scandal apology press conference.

Why They Stay is a thoughtful, researched social science book. It includes entertaining fodder for better understanding what some highly successful women trade to endure in scandal-plagued marriages.

Reviewed by Rachel Jagareski
October 13, 2021

 

BlueInk Review

Anne Michaud’s Why They Stay is a solid, dishy book about seven American political wives and one Brit who stood by their husbands despite their scandalous behavior.

The narrative examines Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton, Melania Trump, Wendy Vitter, Silda Wall Spitzer, Huma Abedin and Marion Stein, wife of Jeremy Thorpe (disgraced in a ‘70s-era gay sex and murder scandal).

Overall, it appeals to our voyeurism, but what elevates this above tabloid fare is Michaud’s creation of an archetypal, loyal political wife she dubs the “White Queen.” The White Queen stays because it serves her interests. Michaud evaluates each of her subjects for White Queen traits such as caretaker, desire to build a legacy, and patriotism.

It’s a clever tool easily applied to Hillary Clinton and Melania Trump. Hillary was a leader in her own right before she met Bill and has remained married, in part, due to their shared patriotic enthusiasm for public service. Melania was a disciplined model, but she latched onto Trump rather than other wealthy men because he offered a larger narrative of success, a legacy for herself and her children.

For her facts, Michaud cites newspaper and magazine articles, books, and trustworthy online sources, but few original interviews. Clearly this award-winning political journalist who wrote for the Wall Street Journal also has much experience to inform her analysis.

In all of these cases, Michaud argues the women knew about their husbands’ philandering and probably negotiated terms, such as their husband’s discretion. But these men’s discretion lapsed, often with little career consequences. Michaud concludes by acknowledging our patriarchal culture and its confounding messages, such as “men will be men.” Americans seem to think their leaders can be serial cheaters, but women with any sense should dump their cheating men. No wonder these graceful women, pilloried for difficult personal choices, are so fascinating.

While not exactly groundbreaking, Michaud’s analysis of them offers a satisfying diversion for anyone interested in the topic.

November, 2021

 
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new ebook Now available: ‘American Czarina’

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"American Czarina" (Ogunquit Press, April 2021) tells the life stories of Melania Knauss Trump, First Lady of the United States, and her husband, President Donald J. Trump, the similarities and differences in their early lives and how they were raised, where they grew up and their shared values. These pages examine how Melania met Donald and why they've stayed together despite obstacles that have broken apart the marriages of other power couples. This book follows on the earlier, "Why They Stay."


 

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