Ooohh, Al Gore and Tipper Gore have just announced their split! They’ve been married for 40 YEARS. My God. Who would have thought, 18 years ago, that the Gores would be the ones splitting up and Hillary and Bill Clinton would still be going strong? It’s funny the way the world works. Anyway, the Gores announced their split through an email to Politico.
Al and Tipper Gore, whose playful romance enlivened Washington and the campaign trail for a quarter century, have decided to separate after 40 years of marriage, the couple told friends Tuesday.
In an “Email from Al and Tipper Gore,” the couple said: “We are announcing today that after a great deal of thought and discussion, we have decided to separate.
“This is very much a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration. We ask for respect for our privacy and that of our family, and we do not intend to comment further.”
The e-mail was obtained by POLITICO and confirmed by Kalee Kreider of the office of Al and Tipper Gore. Kreider said there would be no further comment.
Tipper Gore is a professional photographer who in 1996 published “Picture This, A Visual Diary,” which she called “a personal photographic representation of life as wife of the vice president.”
She often took pictures at campaign events and behind the scenes when her husband ran for president in 2000. In recent years, she often accompanied him on speaking and book-signing engagements as he continued his quest for action on “the climate crisis.”
During Bill Clinton’s presidency, the then-vice president and his wife donned costumes for an annual Halloween party that became a Washington tradition.
The Gores, who have four children and live in Tennessee, marked their 40th wedding anniversary two weeks ago.
The Gores both grew up in the Washington area. They met at a high-school graduation dance and were married at the National Cathedral on May 19, 1970, according to Tipper Gore’s White House biography.
[From Politico]
Hm… do you think there’s more to it? Al could have another lady, you never know. Or Tipper could have someone else as well. MSNBC’s girls were just going on and on about how Tipper was always so much fun and Al was always a stiff, even when you got him one-on-one at a party or something. I met Al Gore once, in passing, when I was working on the 2000 campaign. He was really nice to me and we shook hands. Would I have done him, or would I do him now? Eh. I’ve never found him sexy or attractive (unlike my lover Bill Clinton), but he always seemed like he was probably a really nice guy. I don’t want to think that he’s got some young girl on the side, but stranger stuff has happened.
Header: The Gores at the 2007 Oscars.
i don’t care.
I’ve heard he is fun in groups of friends, and I have seen a couple of interviews in which he was funny. But, I’ve always thought he is kinda nutty, and I suspect he is the one with a new friend, young or old.
If I were Tipper, I would be glad to get him out of the house.
Well… this one shocked me.
WOW! That’s all I can say is WOW! : (
Please do we always have to assume that the man has strayed? Perhaps, as with many couples, they simply have grown apart. 40 years is a very long marriage and commitment in these times.
Maybe it’s just some inconvenient truth like she can’t stand looking at his nosehair anymore.
I blame global warming. ; )
Sad. I agree that we don’t have to jump to cheating. I actually know someone who worked for him during the Clinton administration and on his 2000 campaign and he said he is a great guy. I like them both. 🙁
I think they just grew apart until there was nothing to hold them together any more. It happens to a lot of couples after the kids are all grown up and gone. They seem to be handling this with dignity and I wish them both the best.
my in-laws were close friends of the senior gores. al jr. was always an odd duck. tipper has always been delightful. methinks it’s probably a case of jr. finally going off the deep end after teetering on the edge for a good many years.
This is the shocker split of the year. I thought they had a solid marriage.
always blaming the men, maybe they just had enough after 40 years and it is noone faults. Our society is so condition nowadays that when a relationship or a marriage failed we automatically blamed the man, not right. JMO
Popcorn anybody? This is quite a spectacle. A colossal, greedy, and unhinged gasbag comes crashing down to earth.
Alright. Cue the mistress and love child.
Remember when Al was running for Pres or VP, I forget which, and there was all this hubbub about how non-affectionate he and Tipper were…and so they had that forced kiss photo op, that was super awkward and totally posed? Yah, that spelled doom right then and there.
I think the reason everyone assumes someone is cheating is because that seems to be the norm lately…
I would think after 40 years it would be easier to stay together LOL
i LOVE al. never liked tipper after her weird anti-rap campaign in the ’90s.
I find it sad when long marriages collapse (my parents are about to celebrate their 48th and going strong!), but I find it sadder to stay in an unhappy marriage. Life is too short. I hope nothing sordid happened, though. I really don’t want to hear about some weird sex scandal involving either of them.
Their marital issues weren’t a well-kept secret. Rumors had them in separate bedrooms as far back as the convention in Chicago in the 90s. The Gores never seemed to have much common ground, unlike the Clintons.
Colour me shocked!
Oooooh, I think there’s a blind item about a Hollywood vixen and a “public figure” from Memorial Day. Scandalous.
@meme…may I ask why you felt the need to comment “I don’t care”? I mean, it’s ok. But it just seems strange to read a story and then have that comment.
I just skip over the stories that I don’t care about.
I guess I am just curious.
Really sorry to hear this. Tipper seems like a wonderful wife. I doubt that other people were involved, I think his passion for planet Earth came between them!
The two of them live in a house that is over 20,000 square feet. So there will be no need for one of them to move out, they can just stay in separate wings.
Maybe she is as tired of the gasbag as the rest of us!
“I blame global warming.” @juliana: LMAO – good one!!
I find it sad that after 40 years they are calling it quits. My husband & I have been married 26 years and I like to think that we are past the “divorce” threat, but I guess not…
Oh how I love how you seem to always think there is “another lady” and the cheater is the man! How about realizing that 40 yrs of living together can be hard on ANYONE, no need for mistresses and scandals?
I don’t think there was any cheating. I think it was the cumulative effect of Clinton’s betrayal (lying to Al about Monica Lewinsky), Clinton’s subsequent refusal to campaign for him, the election debacle, suddenly being completely out of politics after a lifetime in office, etc.
Al seems to have turned into a bitter old man. That’s got to be hard to live with. And I couldn’t blame Tipper for wanting to change her situation if she couldn’t endure her husband’s attitude and behavior. But this is really sad. Forty years and it’s over.
@kazoo81– I absolutely agree! I cannot say that I am enamored of either of them. Al Gore has done a lot for environmentalism, but unfortunately it’s all been pretty self-serving (he stands to make serious $$$ if the carbon tax thing ever takes off.) All I know about Tipper is that she was an obnoxious brat about rap – and any other music she found offensive – blaming gun violence and all sorts of other things on “violent” lyrics. The whole “Parental Advisory” sticker thing was her brainchild. I have no love lost for this woman, or her husband.
Ditto #9! Thats exactly what I think.
I think its awful that whenever people annouce their split, people automatically assume that one of the pair cheated.
Umm, actually, Gore rebuffed Clinton’s efforts to campaign for him at every turn. Gore made the strategic decision to distance himself from Clinton, in part, due to his outrage over the Lewinsky mess and scandal after scandal. Clinton wanted (and needed) to campaign for Gore to improve his “legacy” — see Clinton, Hillary for the same “legacy” issues.
All that said, I find this a little surprising. After 40 years, even if it is a little rocky, you’ve pretty well made the decision that, we’ve been in this for the long haul, no reason to stop now. I could get behind the reason being linked to the end of any meaning political life for them, which has been the only life they’ve really ever known, and that reality took its toll.
Several of my parents’ friends (as well as my parents too) who always had happy marriages went through a really rough patch at the 40 year mark. I think at that point-generally in your 60s-you’re becoming aware of your own mortality, you have maybe retired and are spending way more time together than you ever did before-and your relationship definitely goes through a shock. My parents (and their friends) weathered this, but having seen it up close, I’m not surprised anymore when I hear of couples breaking up at this point.
Well heck weve all been in a relationship (or at least most of us) that was far less than 40 years, and our feelings just changed. You dont have to stay in love forever, and sometimes you just dont, you cant. One or the other person doesnt feel the same or isnt the same person anymore. It doesnt have to spell anything dirty or crude or awful; in fact it can be totally honorable and loving and caring, when two people who dont have the same chemistry or love that they had before, decide to let each other go.
That’s too bad.
@thepickle bahaha hilarious!
Standard statement, “Please respect our privacy,” as they make a public announcement, deserves the, “huh,” award : )
Seriously, it was Bush’s fault.
Sometimes a relationship just…dies. One of my aunts was with her husband for 37 years, and they separated because neither of them could find reasons to stay. There was no cheating, but there wasn’t progression either. They were at a standstill, literally, and had been so for over ten years.
Their children were already adults, and felt that their parents’ happiness was more important than being married for marriage’s sake, so they supported them. Four years later, my aunt is dating a rather short, dorky podiatrist who loves her to death. She feels the ssame way. My uncle is married to an old high school flame who lost her husband a year after the divorce.
And they all hang out together.
Good God, as others have said, does it ALWAYS have to be cheating?
I mean, I can see a couple growing apart more and more and more over the years. They didn’t just wake up a few days ago and say “hey, I don’t really like you anymore, let’s divorce!”
I’ve been married for 20 years and I’ve seen too many friends split up, this kind of thing doesn’t just happen overnight.
Maybe they felt no more need to keep up the image. Maybe they finally got to a place where they felt they could do this. Kids are grown. Late in their respective careers. Sounds as though it’s mutual and amicable, so why make up drama where there’s none?
HAHAHALAOLOLOLMAO!!!
that 2nd pic is hilarious!
he looks like one of those avatar aliens, lol 🙂
I know some couples married 25 years or more who barely speak to each other and haven’t slept together in more than a decade. But they live in the same house, go to their kids’ graduations together, attend family gatherings, etc., and very few people are aware that their relationship is almost non-existent. They stay together because of finances, their kids, fear of the unknown, and their traditional values.
The Gores could have been living like this for a long time, yet stayed together because of the kids and his political career. Now they don’t have to care about public opinion, their kids are all grown up, and he has made a lot of money in private enterprises. They just bought a $8.9 million house in California – wonder who’s going to get it?
Who gets the carbon credits? This is sad, but really, Al Gore has been getting nuttier by the day.
My parents were married 30 years before they decided to divorce. They’d had separate bedrooms for a few years, and had grown apart. They still attend the same family functions and chit-chat, but realized they no longer had anything in common, and didn’t want to just grow old and die together simply because they’d already spent so much time together. Life is too short–I don’t see anything wrong with starting an independent life later on if that’s what makes you happy instead of staying with someone simply cuz they’re there. Why be miserable together when you could potentially have a few good years happy apart?
Now that he’s filthy rich off the global warming issue….
He’s ready to bang young, working chicks at the continent of his choice.
Predictable.
/puke
Daisyfly it is so nice that it worked out well for your aunt and uncle, that is a sweet anecdote.
I would have loved to see the Gores go the distance, but alas, after 40 years of marriage, if you’re no longer willing to stay together, a classy divorce is very admirable.
Al Gore is a Southern gentlemen, distinguished statesman, an award winning public advocate and former Vice President. If he and his wife, Tipper, can’t end their long marriage with “grace and dignity” then no one can. Regardless of what may have been going on behind closed doors, the Gores always projected a “united front” in public. Hopefully, they will continue to do so during their divorce. They both deserve to be happy whether they are together or not. May peace be with them.
I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. I would have thought Tipper’d have died of boredom decades ago.
But…wait…isn’t theirs the great romance that Love Story was based upon?
They are both jerks.
I’d love to know how Al Gore is “getting nuttier.”
I was very shocked about this split, and it’s rather a bummer, too.
I despise this delusional clown, and his wife’s crusade to censor music was completely misguided and ridiculous. Still, I hate to see another marriage/relationship go down the tubes. Why can’t people stay together anymore? It really boggles the mind…
Wow, so is the hatred for Gore political or what? I’ve never seen him as being very polarizing at all.
I DO wonder if there is cheating involved, but only because they are a political couple, and political couples seem to keep up appearances at any cost. Didn’t Eliot Spitzer’s wife stand by him? Hillay Clinton? Mark Sanford’s wife?
That said, Gore has been out of politics for about a decade now, so it is also possible that they just grew apart. Maybe I am just brainwashed by all these other man-whore scandals.
For some reason, I don’t view Al Gore as a “sexual man.”
In fact, underneath his suit I envision an “environmentally approved” plastic Ken doll-like male anatomy.
My mother-in-law and father-in-law have been married over 40 years and to say they live separate lives is an understatement. She goes on vacations with her friend, not him, and visits her grandchild by herself. He sleeps downstairs in a chair watching tv every night. NEVER sleep in the same bed. She basically is his maid still. He does nothing to help.
She would be 10000000000x happier living in an apartment by herself. She has acknowledged this as well but says he’s ‘old’ now and she’s not going to leave. When do women ever get to retire by the way?
Awww. . . I always liked them. They seem to have a secret goofy streak that appeals to me. One of their daughters was a writer for the Simpsons and Futurama and they kept writing him into hilarious guest roles. Listening to the DVD commentary they made it sound like he was a funny guy. My favorite story was how he insisted on throwing himself onto a couch to make some realistic huffing and puffing noises for one part.
Wait, I thought “Love Story” was based on his life?
And irts interesting because if there is any cheating/straying, it probably happened well after the marriage/relationship had died down.
So it was a result rather than a cause of the relationships losing fervor.
I hate divorce, separations etc in marriages. I am undergoing marriage course now. And i wish to stay with my husband to be forever’.
if he’s cheating, i can’t imagine WHO in their right mind would want to be with that plastic faced farce !! and in the division of property WHO gets the INTERNET?
Some great comments by Scarlet Vixen and Daisy Fly, among others. This was a shock to me but people say they have been distant in real life for years.
I also wonder what will happen to that Montecito house they just bought. It does seem odd that they bought it just a few months ago and are now divorcing. It makes me wonder if there was a “last straw” moment and what it was.
Tipper Gore is a terrible person. Glad Al’s finally getting rid of her.
Then what the hell is the point in getting married? When in d end people will grow apart. Whats the point of relationships and love and marriage? Life is hard and crazy and we will change as we grow. If its so easy to grow apart, then stop taking those vows.
NPR did a piece on marriage inspired by the Gore separation. Apparently, divorce after so many years is becoming more common as people live longer.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127361766
Great blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics talked about in this article? I’d really love to be a part of group where I can get feed-back from other experienced individuals that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thank you!