But she waited at least several months, until the scandal hit full steam in the press, before she notified her husband that she wanted not only her freedom but half his money, which came to roughly half a billion dollars. At this point, the sort of people who might have publicly risen to defend her husband -- and smear her -- could only sound ridiculous.
A fancy divorce lawyer named Raoul Felder, for instance, was quoted as saying Mr. Welch should fight the divorce. "She might not have the grounds for divorce," Felder told the New York Daily News. "[What] I've read in the media suggests he had nothing more than a close friendship." Meanwhile, over in USA Today, Wetlaufer's spokeswoman said the affair with Jack Welch was "ongoing." The question now isn't whether Mrs. Welch will clobber Mr. Welch but how thorough her triumph will be. Obviously she is a pro and knows what she's doing, but it is only now that she faces her sternest media test.
She understands that the less she is herself in the media, the more she will be cast by journalists as the wronged woman. But she must also realize that the longer and louder the story plays in the media, the more money she can extract from her embarrassed husband. And without a few quotes and perhaps a photo from the aggrieved wife, the story may soon die.
Enter Lorna Wendt. You may recall Wendt as the woman who was spurned by Gary Wendt, former chief executive of General Electric Capital Corp. You may also recall that Lorna Wendt made a principled stand on behalf of corporate wives everywhere, and successfully sued her feckless husband for half his net worth, and thus landed on the covers of business magazines everywhere.
And if you don't recall any of this, she'll help you. Thus opens Wendt's March 14 press release: "The recent news flurry on a potential divorce for former CEO Jack Welch and his wife Jane may raise memories of another high-profile split involving a GE executive." And off it goes to introduce our nation's journalists to something called the Institute for Equality in Marriage.
An institute it may be, but it also is a machine for keeping Jack Welch's feet over the fire. A nod from Mrs. Jack Welch and Mr. Jack Welch will be back in the frying pan, as an excuse for the media to rehash the pressing issue of how much wives who catch their corporate husbands cheating should be paid.
It's often pointed out just how gifted our corporate leaders have become at looking out for their own financial interests.
Should they expect any less from their wives?
RSS