Daily Mail Exclusively Reports On Cooper’s Undisclosed First Marriage
Yesterday, the Daily Mail published its exclusive interview with former Governor Cooper’s first wife. While Cooper often posts about his current wife Kristen Cooper, for decades he has studiously avoided commenting or mentioning his first wife, Georganne Rice.
Here are the key observations from the Daily Mail article:
Georganne says that she and Cooper got married shortly after graduating college but eventually split after he decided to run for office. In the interview she said, “I thought everything was great, until one day he came home and told me that he had signed up to run for state representative. We had not discussed it or anything. We were in our mid-20s, and I wanted to start a family. I was completely flabbergasted that he would decide to run. He wouldn’t even discuss it with me; he just came home and told me.”
'I told Roy, I don't want this life, we didn't discuss this. It was a pretty major life decision.'
She attended the campaign events with him, and they eventually split after he won the election. According to her, when Cooper first ran for Governor, he called her and asked her not to say anything negative.
The article then goes through several public records to piece together a timeline of Roy and his now-wife Kristen’s relationship. The records indicate that Roy and Kristen likely began dating in 1989. While Roy was serving as a North Carolina State Senator and Kristen was a staff attorney at the General Assembly, making Cooper one of her de facto bosses.
The timeline does seem to indicate that Kristen and Roy began dating, while Kristen was still legally married, but the separation process had already begun.
From the article, “Court records show the couple filed for divorce on August 21, 1989, during the legislative session when Kristin and Cooper reportedly began their romance. Kristin and George did not finalize their split until May 1991. Cooper married her the following March.”
Media Double Standard:
In 2023, Speaker Tim Moore faced a lawsuit alleging “alienation of affections” over his relationship with a woman who was separated from her husband. Democrats and legacy outlets across North Carolina freaked out. Will Roy Cooper face the same level of media attention and criticism? It’s a similar situation, but will it receive similar coverage?
Tim’s Take: The information in the Daily Mail article is certainly new information to many North Carolinians who have seen Cooper in the public spotlight for decades. While there is no direct scandal contained in the article, this is a big story that went completely unreported for decades. This raises the question about what other secrets Cooper may be hiding, that the legacy media in North Carolina simply ignored for decades? Now that Cooper has entered the Senate race, he will face a new level of scrutiny that will likely shift North Carolinians’ view of him.
National Democrats likely remember their lost investment in Cal Cunningham, who’s poor judgement with women likely cost them a Senate seat in 2020. This type of story may make national groups more cautious about fully backing Cooper, while they have seats to defend in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.