Hillary Clinton contemplated divorce out of a sense of rage at her husband's affairs, according to an extensive new biography by Carl Bernstein, the former Washington Post reporter who uncovered the Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward.
The 640-page A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton also discloses how terrified she was about the prospect of being prosecuted over the alleged Whitewater financial scandal. Bernstein suggests that she has skirted along the edge of the truth at times.
He details the full extent of the Clintons' troubled relationship and says that Mr Clinton considered ditching his wife in 1989 in favour of Marilyn Jo Jenkins, a company executive. Ms Clinton, one of the frontrunners in the race for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential race, refused to accept a divorce.
"There are worse things than infidelity," she is reported to have told Betsey Wright, chief of staff to Mr Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas before standing for the presidency. But Ms Clinton did not remain sanguine for long. Out of rage at her husband's behaviour, she toyed in 1990 with the idea of standing as governor of Arkansas in his place. At one point, according to Bernstein, she personally interviewed a woman alleged to have had an affair with Mr Clinton.
Bernstein reports a conversation between Ms Clinton and one of her best friends, Diane Blair, in which she raised the prospect of seeking a divorce but was worried about money and the impact on their daughter, Chelsea. Ms Blair is quoted as saying: "She didn't own a house. She was concerned that if she were to become a single parent, how would she make it work in a way that would be good for Chelsea."
Both Clintons went to great lengths to keep his sex life out of the media spotlight, Bernstein says in the book to be published on June 5. Another book on Ms Clinton comes out three days later, Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, by reporters Jeff Garth and Don Van Natta.
The Clinton team yesterday played down the biographies as containing nothing explosive. Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for her campaign team, said: "The news here is that it took three reporters nearly a decade to find no news." Philippe Reines, her spokesman in the Senate, said: "Is it possible to be quoted yawning?"
