Cain's marriage scrutinized amid sexual harassment scandal
theGRIO REPORT - The allegations have unwittingly put Cain's marriage in the public domain and propelled Gloria Cain into the spotlight...
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has been making the rounds this Tuesday defending his reputation and responding to allegations of “inappropriate behavior.”
In an interview with CNN’s sister network HLN Cain tried to set the record straight. “I have never committed sexual harassment in my entire career, period. And it was found that nothing took place in terms of sexual harassment in this particular case,” Cain said.
The embattled politician claims the allegations are an “intended smear campaign” to derail his nomination, because of his rise in popularity.
theGrio: Cain supporters stick by him amid sex scandal
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“This is Cain’s welcome to frontrunner status. We’ve been predicting this for weeks that once he’s taken seriously the knives will be out. This says more about Cain and how he handles a crisis,” says Charlie Harper, editor of PeachPundit.com, a conservative Georgia-based website.
On HLN, Cain said he told his wife at the time about the allegations “because it was found to be baseless.”
The allegations have unwittingly put Cain’s marriage in the public domain and propelled Gloria Cain into the spotlight.
Up until now Mrs Cain has been “invisible” on the campaign trial, which is atypical because most politicians parade their wives, and even children, to peddle the image of happy family life. Even when Gloria appeared side-by-side with her husband when he announced his candidacy last May, she did not speak publicly.Cain has always conceded his family made a deliberate decision for Gloria and their children to stay out of the spotlight. “It was a conscious decision because my adult daughter with her kids, she has a life, my son, he has children, they have a life, and my wife represents that calm and tranquility that I look forward to seeing when I get home,” said Cain.
Though, Cain is not the only politician to have kept his politician wife out of the public eye. Across the pond, during last year’s election campaign the leader of the UK’s Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg was also making headlines, not because of politics but his high-flying Spanish-born wife, Miriam Gonzalez.
International lawyer Gonzalez was rarely by her husband’s side during the run up to the election. The mother of three boys, made it clear that her sons and career came ahead of her role as a political wife.
However all this is all going to change.
“You will meet my wife publicly, in an exclusive interview that we are currently planning and anticipating,” Herman Cain said on Fox News on Monday.
“She will be introduced in terms of some limited exposure. But it’s not her style for her to be with me on every campaign stop.”
No one knows for sure whether or not Gloria Cain’s “public introduction” was planned before or after the inappropriate behavior allegations but cynics will say there have been numerous examples of women “standing by their man”, especially when their high-profile husbands are embroiled in sexual scandals and allegations of impropriety.
So what do we know about Gloria Cain?
Gloria and Herman Cain have been married for 43 years. They raised two children and have three grandchildren. Gloria is the homemaker of their Greater Atlanta home while Cain’s pursued his career and more recently political aspirations.
Friends who know the couple say they have a strong bond.
“Some people get bland as they get older. They’re not one of those couples,” former Atlanta mayoral candidate and Cain supporter Tiffany Brown has said in an interview with CNN. “It’s not one of those relationships that’s ‘just because. They have a strong love.”
