Dr. Katherine Jellison
The Washington Post quoted Dr. Katherine Jellison, Professor and Chair of History at Ohio University, in a story headlined “How are Donald and Melania doing? Why America cares about the presidential marriage.”
Asking “How is the Trump marriage” isn’t just a matter of idle gossip, said Katherine Jellison, an Ohio University history professor. Americans have always cared about the state of our presidents’ unions.
“There’s the concern that, for people in public life, their personal life matters and can affect their decision-making — so they want to know what that connection is, and they want to read the tea leaves,” Jellison said. “Many first families have had marriages that people suspected might not be the greatest, and so there’s often been speculation.”
Many people knew that Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt lived largely separate lives, and criticism of Eleanor for not being an adequate housewife spilled into editorial cartoons mocking their marriage. The Kennedys, of course, were famously whispered about — although there was a tacit “gentleman’s agreement” among male reporters covering the president that his affairs were off limits, Jellison said.
Read more in the Washington Post.
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