Disturbing facts about Wendy Davis' life revealed

Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis has built up an image of a strong, independent single mother whose hard work and determination took her from a trailer park, to Harvard, and then to the Texas Senate. However, a new report by Wayne Slater of The Dallas Morning News paints a much different picture than the one Davis and her campaign have painted, and it isn't very flattering. The report, in fact, reveals that Davis glossed over and even misrepresented some aspects of her personal life. She explained the situation by telling the Morning News that "my language should be tighter" when recounting her past.


Last week, NBC's Today Show did a flattering piece on Davis by Maria Shriver called "On Her Own Two Feet" as part of a series of reports about women called "Doing It All." The story played up her personal struggles, including having to live in a trailer park. It then highlighted her rise to the Ft. Worth City Council and eventually, the Texas Senate. “I am the epitome of hard work and optimism," she told Shriver. However, the story left out some key points, as Slater points out in his story.

Among the revelations in the story:

• Davis only lived in a trailer home for a few months after her separation from her first husband. She soon moved into an apartment. She divorced her first husband when she was 21, not 19 as she has said.
• She was able to attend Harvard and earn a law degree not "on her own two feet," but only after she married Jeff Davis, a wealthy lawyer 13 years older than her, who paid for her final two years at TCU and her entire education at Harvard. He even cashed in his 401K and took out a loan to pay for her education.
• Wendy Davis married Jeff Davis at 24, so her "years of struggle" were confined to the three years after her divorce. They lived not in a trailer park, but in a historic home in an upscale Ft.. Worth neighborhood. Their daughter attended a private school.
• The day after Jeff Davis paid off her Harvard tuition bill, Wendy Davis left him and they later divorced.
• In their divorce filing, Jeff Davis accused Wendy Davis of adultery. Jeff was granted custody of Wendy's two girls, even though the oldest daughter was from Wendy's first marriage. Jeff raised the girls in Ft. Worth while Wendy went to Harvard. Wendy Davis paid child support to Jeff Davis after the divorce.

Wendy Davis refused to discuss the details of her divorce with the Dallas Morning News.