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Ex-wife: Newt creates a political illusion

Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich at a candidates' debate in Charleston, S.C., Jan. 19, 2012. UPI/Kevin Dietsch
1 of 3 | Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich at a candidates' debate in Charleston, S.C., Jan. 19, 2012. UPI/Kevin Dietsch | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich's second wife rejected his assertion he didn't ask her for an "open marriage," saying, "My story is the truth."

"If he had really changed, he could have stepped up and said he was sorry. He never has," Marianne Gingrich told ABC News in a phone interview after learning of Gingrich's excoriation of the "liberal media" for asking about his marital infidelities at the start of Thursday's Republican presidential debate in South Carolina.

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"With everything that's going on, it's time for me to speak and get my information out that's truthful, rather than it being hearsay and innuendo and many other things," she said, adding her 18 years of marriage to the GOP presidential hopeful weren't entirely unhappy.

"Newt and I spent 18 years basically becoming a partnership as well as a marriage and we really had a lot of fun and it was an exciting time," she said. "It really took the two of us to get through the barrage of the politics that was in Washington as we tried to change things for the better."

But she said Newt Gingrich was convinced successful politicians create illusions for the voting public.

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"When Newt and I first started talking about politics, he said, 'King Kong was 3'6" but that is not what you see on the movie screen. You see a much larger figure.'

"I don't think that you can have illusions, create illusions and be saying things publicly and be doing something privately," she said.

Newt Gingrich had a six-year affair with Callista Bisek -- who was a congressional aide at the time and is now his third wife -- while he was married to Marianne.

"I don't have just bad things to say," Marianne Gingrich said. "I think many things that Newt is capable of and has done in the past prove that he is a smart man. And whatever contribution he will make to this country, people need to make their decisions based on information that is truthful."

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