Bill and Hillary Clinton are one of the most influential couples in America and their love story is somewhat extraordinary. They have been together for nearly 46 years and went through thick and thin in order to keep their marriage going strong.
Bill has always been interested in politics, even as a teenager. Being extremely bright and an outstanding student, he got the chance to enrol some of the most prestigious schools in the country. Following high school, Bill attended Georgetown University. Then, in 1986, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University, and later on earned his law degree at Yale University.
Those who knew him well were aware of his political aspirations. Bill’s love for politics grew even stronger after a very special meeting with then-President John F Kennedy during a visit of the White House Rose Garden as a delegate to Boys Nation.
The photo of young Bill shaking the President’s hand gained a lot of attention and many dub it legendary.
“I was about the third or fourth person in, and…I sort of muscled my way up (to the front),” Bill once recalled of the meeting which left huge impression on him.
Many of his friends recalled how Bill wouldn’t stop talking about JFK that day and was so fascinated and impressed with him that he told a friend, future Minnesota Congressman Jim Ramstad, that he would have that job one day.
As we all know, young Bill kept that promise and served as the 42nd President of the United States of America. During his successful presidency, he got involved in an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, which overshadowed a considerable chunk of his legacy in the White House.
Monica was 22 at the time and the affair lasted for two years before everyone learned about it. Her phone had been tapped and her calls recorded in secret, and in the end, she had to testify before a grand jury. A great part of her conversations with the President were released in the media and her life was destroyed. All she wanted was to have her anonymity back, something which isn’t possible even today.
As the affair became known to the world, all eyes were on Bill’s wife, Hillary. Despite the scandal, she never left Bill’s side.
In her memoir, published in 2003, Hillary opened up about her marriage and wrote that choosing to stay with Bill was one of “the most difficult decisions I have made in my life.”
Further, in an interview with Barbara Walters, Hillary said, “I was furious, I was dumbfounded, I was … just beside myself with anger and disappointment,” and added, “You know, I couldn’t imagine how he could have done that to me or to anyone else.”
But their love story and what they felt for one another was a reason enough for Hillary to forgive Bill for his infidelity.
Bill and Hillary first met while they both attended Yale. Recalling their first encounter, Bill said, “In the spring of 1971, I met a girl. The first time I saw her, we were appropriately enough in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick blonde hair, big glasses, wore no makeup. And she exuded this sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic.”
One day, they were studying in opposite sides of the law library when she noticed that he kept starring at her. It was then that she decided to approach him and introduce herself. “Look, if you’re going to keep staring at me, and now I’m staring back. We at least oughta know each other’s name. I’m Hillary Rodham, who are you?” Bill recalled Hillary telling him.
Shortly after their encounter, he asked her out on a date.
“She exuded this sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic,” Bill recalled during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. “I just went ahead and asked her to take a walk down to the art museum. We’ve been walking, talking, and laughing together ever since.”
As they were both interested in politics and shared love for the same things, he knew she was the one. Before saying ‘I do,’ Hillary turned Bill’s proposal to marry him twice. She just believed she wasn’t ready at the time.
“Bill was in a different universe. It was a different level of connection. I felt like he was the most interesting man I ever met, and ever would meet,” Hillary said in a Hulu documentary.
Recalling those times, Hillary shared with Girls star Lena Dunham that she was “terrified” of losing her identity and getting lost in the “kind of wake” of “Bill’s force-of-nature-personality.”
When he proposed for the third time, she finally agreed and the two tied the knot at an intimate ceremony.
“I married my best friend. I was still in awe, after more than four years of being around her, at how smart, and strong, and loving, and caring she was,” Bill once said of their wedding day.
“It was a big leap of faith, and I think most marriages are,” Hillary added.
The Clintons are now grandparents of three beautiful grandchildren with whom they spend quality time.
On their 45th anniversary, they both posted on the social media.
“October 11th was a beautiful day 45 years ago. Still is. The bride was beautiful too. And still is,” Bill Clinton tweeted. “Happy Anniversary, Hillary. I love you.”
“Forty-five years. Never a dull moment, and you’re still my best friend,” Hillary wrote on Instagram. “Love you, Bill,” she wrote in a post.
What a powerful couple these two are.
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