As a former actress and now political consultant, Alena Giuliani is in an interesting place in her personal life. She has been married to Democratic National Chairman and Spokesman John Edwards since 1997. Recently, however, the two have split and she is now dating Illinois Attorney General Richard Cordray. Recently, there have been speculations that she might be considering a second marriage, to a man thirty years her senior, as a way to raise her stature in the public eye and hopefully her political career in the years to come.
What exactly is the matter with her personal life? Is she seeing someone else? These are questions that are plaguing the New York political scene at this point in the primary season. In an article at New York Magazine, Alena suggested that both she and John Edwards were on the same page regarding their future, but she wouldn’t say whether they were seeing each other romantically at this time. Whether or not she’s seeing a man, though, doesn’t really seem to be of any issue to the Edwards campaign. According to spokesperson Robin Phillips, “John Edwards believes in using his celebrity status to his benefit, and he has nothing to worry about his wife’s personal relationships.”
Alena is a name that has hardly been heard over in the last year, but her marriage to John Edwards does raise some eyebrows. A native of Romanian descent, Alena is thought to be in safe, if not financially, custody of her young son in a Romanian orphanage. Although Romanian law bars public figures from traveling to that country without permission, the fact remains that Alena is still allowed to live in the United States. Of course, as a former first lady of the United States, John Edwards could always press charges of visa fraud or other charges with the U.S. immigration service or use whatever power he had to revoke Alena’s citizenship. There is no word on that yet, but the possibility does exist.