ELIZABETH, N.J. – After two tell-all books, tawdry sex claims and 3½ years of living apart, the nation’s first openly gay governor and his estranged wife showed up for court Tuesday to begin the process of ending their tumultuous marriage.
“It’s a beautiful day,” former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey said as he entered alone through the back entrance to the Union County Courthouse.
Dina Matos McGreevey had no comment as she hurried in with her lawyer through a pack of camera crews at the courthouse’s front entrance.
The first three days of the trial were to be held outside the glare of cameras and the media as Superior Court Judge Karen M. Cassidy considered custody issues concerning the couple’s 6-year-old daughter. The judge has sealed all documents and testimony about the kindergartner – the couple’s only child together.
McGreevey, 50, and his wife, 41, have been going at each other publicly for months about everything from his partner’s financial assets to their daughter’s birthday party.
The issues to be decided in the divorce settlement involve custody, alimony and child support, and whether McGreevey, now openly gay, committed fraud by marrying a woman.
McGreevey stepped down during his first term in office after a nationally televised speech in which he acknowledged being “a gay American” and having an affair with a male staffer. The staffer has denied the affair and claims he was sexually harassed by McGreevey.
Matos McGreevey claims she never knew her husband was gay until just before he told the rest of the world. He claims their marriage was “a contrivance on both our parts,” but that he fulfilled the marriage contract by providing companionship and a child.
Matos McGreevey is seeking $600,000 for time she would have spent at the governor’s mansion had her husband not resigned in disgrace.
The dissolution of the McGreevey’s marriage has long been tabloid fodder, fueled in large part by the McGreeveys themselves.
Since splitting up months after his resignation in 2004, both McGreevey and his soon-to-be-ex wrote books about their lives together, including their sex lives. Both promoted their books during splashy appearances on Oprah.
The couple has continued to stay in the news through a series of public spats and catty comments.
McGreevey once criticized an outfit his wife wore on television, and she forced him to remove a large photograph of a nude man that hung over his bed when their daughter was to visit.
Neither has heeded stern suggestions from the judge that they settle the case rather than expend the emotional energy and significant money for a divorce trial.
The biggest bombshell in the case so far has been claims by a 29-year-old ex-campaign aide that he had regular sexual encounters with the McGreeveys.
Teddy Pedersen, 29, said the trysts began while the McGreeveys were still dating in 1999 and ended two years later, after they were married and McGreevey had been elected governor.
McGreevey said the encounters happened; Matos McGreevey denied them. Her attorney, John Post, is seeking to bar Pedersen’s testimony on the matter.
McGreevey, who now lives with a male partner and is studying to be an Episcopal priest, wants joint physical and legal custody of their daughter. He currently has the child one night a week and every other weekend.
Matos McGreevey, who until recently worked at Columbus Hospital in Newark, can often be seen providing commentary on cable television shows, most recently providing analysis when New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal.