Gingrich Makes A Deal

Newt Gingrich worked out a divorce agreement Friday with his wife of 18 years, avoiding a potentially embarrassing public airing of his affair with a 33 year-old congressional aide.

Gingrich and his estranged wife Marianne reached the confidential agreement after a 12-hour court-ordered mediation session.

Callista Bisek, Gingrich's girlfriend since 1993, had been ordered to answer questions about her lover and had already turned over some gifts and documents to Mrs. Gingrich's attorneys. The settlement means Bisek will not have to answer any further questions.

Randy Evans, the former speaker's attorney, says his client agreed to a settlement because of the cost of litigation, not because he wanted to avoid more public revelations about his affair with Bisek.

"We have taken the brunt of whatever hit we were going to take," Evans said. "We felt as though we had weathered that storm."

The divorce should be final in a few weeks. Neither side released any details of the settlement. "This divorce has been so intense and so difficult and so public, the parties do not wish to have the terms of this matter disseminated," said Mrs. Gingrich's lawyer John Mayoue. "All parties are well served by the agreement," he added.

Gingrich separated from his wife in May and filed for divorce in July, saying the couple's marriage was "irrevocably broken."

The case had grown increasingly spiteful, as lawyers for Mrs. Gingrich asked questions about the former speaker's finances and his affair with Bisek.

A judge forced Gingrich to answer 32 questions from his wife's lawyers. Most were about his finances, but one question asked Gingrich to list any lovers he had besides his wife during their marriage. Another question asked whether his actions as a spouse were consistent with the "family values" he espoused as a politician.

Shiel Edlin, an Atlanta divorce attorney who has represented high-profile clients such as actress Halle Berry, said Gingrich settled because it was in his long-term political interest to get the story out of the news.

This marks the second failed marriage for Gingrich, who married his former high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, when he was 18. They had two daughters during their 19-year marriage.

Within months of his first divorce, Gingrich married Marianne Ginther, a county planner and business consultant from Ohio. Reports of trouble between the two surfaced in 1989 when the couple told The Washington Post they didn't know if their marriage would last.

Gingrich has said his relationship with Bisek began in 1993 when he was separated from his wife. However, the relationship continued even after the Gingriches reconciled and he became speaker in 1995.

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