Report: Newt Gringrich’s divorce papers contradict his claim wife Jackie wanted split

Calvin Cruce/AP

Newt Gingrich, first wife Jackie and their daughters Jackie Sue and Kathleen in an undated photo.

She told judge she didn’t want to dissolve marriage

BY Helen Kennedy
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, December 26 2011, 3:16 PM

One of Newt Gingrich’s messiest political problems resurfaced Monday when CNN posted papers from his first divorce that contradict his claims his wife sought the split.
A confidant of the former House speaker also told CNN that Gingrich said he dumped Jackie Battley — his one-time high school geometry teacher — in 1980 because she wasn’t “young enough or pretty enough” to be First Lady.

The thrice-married Gingrich, who is clinging desperately to front-runner status as the first caucus and primary votes loom, has been dogged by gossip about the divorce for years. On his campaign website, he denies the much-retold story that he served his first wife divorce papers in the hospital where she had just had cancer surgery.

“It was (Jackie Battley) that requested the divorce, not Newt, and it was months before the hospital visit in question,” the campaign website says. READ MORE