CNN - Local News - Weld marriage may be on rocks
Matthew Barrera
Published Apr 11, 2026
| William Weld | |
| By David R. Guarino and Gayle Fee |
| |
| June 30, 2000 Web posted at: 12:06 PM EDT (1606 GMT) |
BOSTON, Massachusetts (The Boston Herald) -- Beacon Hill pols and New York society circles were rocked yesterday by news that former Gov. William F. Weld is facing a marital breakup - and public disclosure of an alleged adulterous affair.
Word filtered north from Manhattan that Weld and his wife, Susan Roosevelt Weld, have separated and that the former governor has been carrying on a relationship with a 46-year-old magazine writer.
The Welds are now living apart and the former governor is living in the same building as his new romantic interest, sources said.
The woman, who writes for In Style Magazine, has known the Weld family and has connections to Boston journalists.
Sources close to Weld say the relationship has been going on since before Christmas and that the two have been seen together at dozens of parties, including family functions.
That stunned former Weld staffers and friends in Boston, who say such behavior is off the map for the former governor.
But others say there were deep fractures in the relationship between Weld and his wife long before he left office three years ago and that Weld's Libertarian-Republicanism, hunting trips and alcohol-soaked card games never quite meshed with his wife's liberal ideals and scholarly intellectualism.
``I don't think Susan was ever comfortable in the rough-and-tumble world of politics,'' one of her friends said, speaking only on condition of anonymity. ``Hers is a completely different orientation from someone who wanted to have an impact in those rarified high circles of politics.''
Analysts say a divorce or separation in itself won't hurt Weld should he run for governor of New York, but losing Susan Weld would.
``Society has come to accept divorces in politics as common, but it certainly won't help him,'' said Roni Thaler, executive director of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, which Susan Weld supports.
``Certainly she's an asset - there's not enough good things people can say about her.''
Neither Weld nor his wife could be reached for comment yesterday but the news, first reported in a column in Thursday's New York Post, had the political world abuzz.
Weld moved to New York as senior partner with McDermott Will & Emery, a post he took after President Clinton's nomination as ambassador to Mexico died at the hands of Republican Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) in the U.S. Senate. First elected in 1990, Weld left office in the summer of 1997 after losing a challenge to U.S. Sen. John Kerry.
"She kept him grounded"
Sources said Weld's relationship with his wife and five children strained as soon as he left the U.S. Attorney's office and entered the political world. But Weld took care not to bring his family into campaigns or government, allowing Susan Weld to flourish as an expert in Chinese law and women's issues at Harvard.
``Most people had as much, if not more, respect for Susan than they did for Bill,'' one former senior staffer said. ``She kept him grounded and she helped show a bigger-picture Bill Weld because she's no lightweight of a woman.''
One former aide said the Welds had even been cozy on occasion and said the governor's dalliances focused on big cigars, long weekend hunting trips and ``amber colored'' liquid - not women.
But, the aide hastened to add, ``I guess no one really knows what happens in anyone's personal life.''
And Susan Weld's stances often hurt Weld while he served, like her defense of Democrats her husband was accused of ``hoodwinking'' by sneaking through the 1994 welfare reform package, and her admission that she often voted Democrat.
She caused more than a few chuckles when, after voting in Weld's ill-fated Senate bid, she would only say she voted ``for the sanctity of the ballot box.''
Meanwhile, sources said the marriage was dissolving before Weld left for New York and that Susan Weld followed him there in a ``last-ditch'' effort - one that apparently failed.
``It's been over for a long time,'' said one friend of the Welds. ``Even though they tried to keep it together, it was not to be.''
Gov. Paul Cellucci, asked yesterday about his former ``co-governor,'' would only say ``I don't know anything about it.''
Weld hasn't committed to running for office again and, if he does, it won't be until Gov. George Pataki leaves office - likely in 2006. That is plenty of time for Weld to recover and reinvent himself yet again, analysts say.
``He focuses on new ambitions and he finds a way to be successful. We can't ever underestimate Bill Weld's potential to reinvent himself,'' said Elizabeth Sherman of the McCormack Institute at University of Massachusetts Boston.
``He is a very resilient character and seems to always be moving forward with his cup brimming over with potential. He'll turn into the wind and move forward.''
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