- Kellyanne and George Conway have been married for 17 years and have four kids together.
- Though they’ve spent years in prominent circles, the lawyer and former pollster shot to the top of the national political stage when Kellyanne became the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign.
- But George’s public hits on Trump, and vice versa, have painted a picture of a difficult marriage.
Kellyanne and George Conway have been married for 17 years, have four kids together, and have risen to prominence on the national political stage in recent years.
But their relationship – from the outside, at least – appears to be under more stress than ever.
Kellyanne, who ran President Donald Trump’s campaign and now serves as his counselor, is one of Trump’s fiercest and most vocal supporters. While George supported Trump at first, he now publicly trolls the president on Twitter.
On Tuesday, Trump shot back, calling George “A total loser!” on Twitter. On Wednesday, the president followed up by calling George “a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!”
Here is an inside look at one of the most interesting marriages in Washington, aided by a lengthy feature on the couple from the Washington Post.
After spotting the DC pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrick on the cover of a magazine in the late 1990s, George called his friend Ann Coulter to introduce him to her.
Source: Washington Post
After Coulter introduced the two, Kellyanne and George began spending time together in The Hamptons and at baseball games. Kellyanne once said, "I find that his near-constant presence doesn’t annoy me."
Source: Washington Post
The two were married in 2001 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. It was reportedly a "decadent affair" — the cake was so big it had to be cut into pieces so it could fit in the door.
Source: Washington Post
"It was the biggest, fanciest wedding I've ever been to in my entire life," a guest recalled to The Post. "All seven of the members of the right-wing conspiracy were there. The rest were just Republicans."
Source: Washington Post
That guest was referring to George's alleged role in fanning the flames of former President Bill Clinton's impeachment, which former first lady Hillary Clinton once called a "vast right-wing conspiracy."
Source: Washington Post
The newlyweds moved into an apartment at Trump World Tower in Manhattan. It was here where Kellyanne and George met Trump.
Source: Washington Post
George argued against taking Trump's name off the building, and the real estate developer called to thank George for what he did, offering him a spot on the condo board.
Source: Washington Post
George declined the offer, but Kellyanne volunteered for the position. "My laziness led her to meet Donald Trump," George told the Post.
Source: Washington Post
But George now says that he regrets introducing Kellyanne to Trump. "Knowing what I know now, I would have said no, and never mentioned it when I got home," George told The Post.
Sources: Washington Post, Business Insider
The years that followed living in Alpine, New Jersey were quieter. Kellyanne and George raised their four children: a set of twins named George IV and Claudia, Charlotte, and Vanessa.
Source: Washington Post
While Kellyanne's polling work had her in both New York and Washington, DC, George worked in New York as a litigation partner at the firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz.
Source: Washington Post, Star Ledger, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Between their two jobs, the Conways have done well financially. When she joined the Trump administration, they disclosed assets worth up to $39.3 million.
Source: Business Insider
Kellyanne joined Trump's team in July 2016. She would later become the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign.
Kellyanne made occasional TV appearances through her polling work, but it was nothing like when she began working for Trump. George even hired security to keep the family safe.
Source: Washington Post
"I remember going on Google after she was announced as campaign manager and seeing her name was the most-searched term in the country," George told The Post. "I knew right then our lives would never be quite the same."
Source: Washington Post
Kellyanne and George would watch the "Saturday Night Live" impressions and found them to be funny until they started to seem mean.
Source: Washington Post
When the networks called the election for Trump, George reportedly began to cry and say to everyone at the Midtown Manhattan Hilton about Kellyanne: "She did it! She did it! She made history."
Source: Washington Post
"I couldn't have done this without him," Kellyanne said of George taking care of the kids while she was on the road campaigning.
Source: Washington Post
After Kellyanne moved down to DC, George and the kids joined her after the school year finished. Their 15,000-square-foot home near Embassy Row reportedly cost almost $8 million.
Sources: Town and Country, Washington Post
Trump was reportedly considering George to either run the Justice Department's civil division or serve as US Solicitor General. But George withdrew his name from consideration to stay in the private sector.
Source: Washington Post, Cosmopolitan
George reportedly turned down the offer after Trump fired FBI director James Comey and the special counsel's investigation of Russia's interference in US elections gained traction.
Sources: Washington Post, Business Insider
According to his friends, George did not want to be a part of a Justice Department that found itself targeted by the president.
Sources: Washington Post, Business Insider
Since arriving to Washington, George has not been afraid to take shots at Kellyanne's boss on Trump's favorite social media platform.
Source: Business Insider
When Trump vented about the striking down of his travel ban in June 2017, Conway criticized Trump's approach by suggesting that Trump's tweets would ultimately hurt the president's case.
Sources: Business Insider, Twitter
"This is flabbergasting," Conway said in March 2018, in response to a report that Trump discussed pardoning former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort in the Russia probe.
Source: Business Insider/Twitter
In a now-deleted tweet in March 2018, George described Trump's string of hirings and firings at the White House as "absurd", and in another tweet, described Trump's statements as "false and misleading."
Source: Business Insider
When Trump said in April that attorney-client privilege was dead, Conway responded on Twitter with a section of a Justice Department manual listing guidelines for executing proper searches of potentially privileged material.
Source: Business Insider, Twitter
Kellyanne told The Post she thought George's tweets were "disrespectful." "It's a violation of basic decency, certainly, if not marital vows."
Sources: Washington Post, Business Insider
Kellyanne tried to be quoted about her husband as "a person familiar with their relationship", but the reporter refused because she was already on the record for the interview.
Source: Business Insider
In June, George wrote a column for Lawfare defending the special counsel Robert Mueller and his authority in the Russia investigation.
Source: CNN
In another interview with the Post, George said he gives Kellyanne a harder time about working for Trump than anyone else. He also said that "it's just endless selfies" when people approach them out in public.
Source: Washington Post
Kellyanne embraces her popularity. "Nobody knows who I am because of my husband," she told The Post. "People know of my husband because of me."
Source: Washington Post
But the two are increasingly at odds over Kellyanne's boss. "If there's an issue, it's because she's in that job, for that man," George told the Post.
Source: Washington Post
Kellyanne suggested to The Post that she feels torn between the two of them. "I feel there's a part of him that thinks I chose Donald Trump over him. Which is ridiculous. One is my work and one is my marriage."
Source: Washington Post
"I'm just saddened by how things turned out," George told The Post.
Source: Washington Post
Trump's tense relationship with George reached a fever pitch in March 2019 after Trump spent St. Patrick's Day weekend on a Twitter tear against "Saturday Night Live," Fox News, and the late Sen. John McCain.
Source: Business Insider
George posted the cover of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders hours after the first leg of Trump's tweets, followed by the book's pages that describe narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder.
Source: Twitter
When asked about the tweet, Kellyanne said she doesn't "share those concerns" about Trump's psychological state.
Source: Politico
Trump himself capped off the drama when he called the lawyer "A total loser!"
Source: Twitter
George responded with several tweets of his own, starting with, "Congratulations! You just guaranteed that millions of more people are going to learn about narcissistic personality disorder and malignant narcissism! Great job!"
Source: Twitter
"This was the article that first got me to really understand you, @realDonaldTrump," George tweeted, with a link to a Rolling Stone story about Trump's mental health. "Once someone understands narcissistic personality disorder, they understand you—and why you’re unfit and incompetent for the esteemed office you temporarily hold."
Sources: Twitter, Rolling Stone
On Wednesday, Trump escalated the feud, calling George "a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!" George retweeted it, with the comment, "The President of the United States."
Source: Twitter
Washington Post White House reporter Ashley Parker asked, "why is it considered the ultimate insult to call a man 'Mr. [Insert Wife’s Name Here]'?" To that, George responded, "It isn't—except perhaps to the extremely juvenile and boorish. What I really wouldn't want to be called is 'Individual-[ ],'" referring to the way Trump is characterized in Muller's court filings.
Source: Twitter
In an interview with Politico on Wednesday, Kellyanne said she had discussed George's criticisms with Trump "in passing," and that the president "left it alone for months out of respect for me." She added that the rift hasn't affected her job in any way.
Source: Politico
"But you think he shouldn’t respond when somebody, a non-medical professional accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?" she told Politico's Daniel Lippman, adding that Trump was a "counterpuncher."
Source: Politico