A
beloved high-profile husband is rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct.
Phase
One is Shock. No, not him. He seems so…nice.
Phase
Two is Prurience as we explore the man’s not-so-nice side. The predatory side. The part of him who
enlists office staff and security guards to find, contact, and console his
conquests. Who carries Quaaludes for
women he wants to have sex with. Who
uses the remote-control lock on his office door as foreplay.
Phase
Three is Betrayal. How could we have let
these men onto our televisions, movie screens, newspapers, and voting
ballots? Why didn’t someone tell us?
And
then, inevitably, our gaze shifts to the wife.
She, after all, was the man’s private partner. It follows, of course, that she must have
known. What kind of woman puts up with
that? What kind of woman makes that
bargain?
Back
when Bill Cosby was known as a sweater-wearing, Jello-pudding-loving Dad, his
wife was known as a respected supporter and editor of African-American arts and
literature, and was perceived by many to be a driving force behind both her
husband’s career and the couple’s legendary philanthropy. These days, the best version of Camille
Cosby’s marriage is that he maintained a remarkably busy schedule bedding
drugged-up women while she raised five kids and earned a doctorate. I can only wonder what it was like to be her
the morning of her deposition by the lawyer representing her husband’s
accusers.
Hillary
Clinton was a successful law firm partner, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State,
and the first woman to be a major party’s nominee for U.S. President. But when it came time for her to debate her
opponent—a man embroiled (then and still) in his own “pussy tape” scandal—she
was confronted by her husband’s own accusers, watching her from the
audience. By staying with her husband,
she had lost the moral right, the argument went, to criticise any man’s sexual
misconduct.
Think
of any of the celebrity names that have come and gone from the headlines during
the #metoo “reckoning.” Then Google the
wife, if there is one. I’ll bet you
dollars to donuts you’ll find plenty to read.
Either she left him or she stayed.
She’s absolutely shocked or her worst fears are now confirmed. Total strangers tweet snarky speculation that
she’s in it for the money. Or to blame
because she’s mental. Or maybe she’s
even into it.
THE
WIFE is not based on any single wife. It
was, however, inspired by a simple observation: When a married man is accused
of sexual misconduct, his wife becomes part of the narrative.
I
hope readers will find Angela Powell’s role in this particular narrative both
surprising and provocative. The headline
might be Jason’s scandal, but Angela has some secrets of her own.
The
Wife by Alafair Burke is published on February 1, 2018 by Faber &
Faber (£12.99)
When
Angela met Jason Powell, while catering a function in the Hamptons, she assumed
their romance would be a fling. But, Jason, a brilliant economics professor at
NYU, had other plans, and they married the following summer. The marriage meant
a fresh start, a chance for Angela and her young son to move to Manhattan where
no one knew of her tragic past. Six years later, her husband has become a
successful and celebrated liberal figurehead, but when a college intern and
then another woman come forward with allegations against him, their perfect
life begins to unravel. Jason insists he is innocent, but Angela is forced to
ask how well she ever really knew her husband, and if she can afford to stand
by him and risk her own past being revealed.
