Colbie Holderness, the first wife of disgraced ex-White House staff secretary Rob Porter, takes presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway to task for suggesting that “strong” women such as Hope Hicks have nothing to fear from abusive spouses.
“Being strong — with excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts — does not inoculate a person against abuse,” she explains in a commentary for The Washington Post. “It doesn’t prevent her from entering into a relationship with an abuser. Abuse often doesn’t manifest itself early on — only later, when you’re in deep and behind closed doors. The really ugly side of Rob’s abuse only came out after we married, following three years of dating.