Paula Broadwell Isn’t Just Petraeus’s Mistress Or Cover Story, She Is Somebody’s Mother
She’s at the center of a huge government sex scandal, but Paula Broadwell is a lot more than a successful man’s mistress. As details come out about David Petraeus’s affair and subsequent resignation, it took very little time to find out about his partner in all this scandal. It wasn’t that difficult because Broadwell has spent plenty of time in the public eye, like when she was promoting her biography of her alleged lover.
The New York Times has a detailed write-up of Broadwell, her extensive achievements, and her public relationship with the
four-star general. But there was one point of the story that stood out for me, and that tells a very different tale from one being sold in the media at the moment. Broadwell wasn’t just a hanger-on or puppy dog who followed the general around like a groupie. She was not just an over-achieving Type A personality with a string of titles and impressive accreditations. Paula Broadwell was also a married mother of two.
On the official website for Broadwell’s book, she was quoted as saying:
”I was driven when I was younger. Driven at West Point where it was much more competitive in that women were competing with men on many levels, and I was driven in the military and at Harvard, both competitive environments.”
”But now, as a working mother of two, I realize it is more difficult to compete in certain areas. I think it is important for working moms to recognize that family is the most important.”
Whether it was just lip service or not, Paula appeared to be trying to focus on her family, to settle down and reprioritize. That
New information says that the story came out because Broadwell was sending threatening emails to a woman that she perceived as being “too close” to Petraeus. The woman, who hasn’t been identified, sought the FBI’s protection after receiving the emails. Once the FBI began investigating, they found explicit emails between Petraeus and his biographer. It seems like this woman, one who was so dedicated to being the best, lost sight of what was really important. statement, no matter how incongruous with her actions, reminds us that there is a husband and two kids getting dragged into the media circus with this woman. There’s a family who is probably just as shocked as the political pundits, and a lot more emotionally invested.
In the next few weeks, plenty of talk will be surrounding the Petraeus family and David’s loving wife, Holly. There will be lots of reports about the timing of his resignation and the Congressional hearings on the Benghazi attacks. We already have a couple conspiracy theorists on our own website.
I’m not going to say whether or not Petraeus’s resignation has anything to do with politics. I will say that there’s a couple families for whom none of this is political. There are two young kids and a husband who are dealing with a very public and emotional scandal. There’s a woman who was once respected in her field, who was used to praise and achievement, who will now be the recipient of harsh criticism and the butt of jokes because she failed to listen to her own PR. She should’ve remembered what was really important.
(Photo: Carrie Devorah / WENN)
