Rep. Charlie Crist Files for Florida Divorce

Former Governor Charlie Crist filed for a Florida divorce from wife Carole in February 2017. The couple was married for 8 years. The Crists had no children. Mrs. Crist has two daughters in New York from her first marriage. Crist was married in 1979 for less than a year. He has no children. The U.S. Representative said the divorce should have no impact on his service. Adam C. Smith and Mark Puente report for the Tampa Bay Times.

“The marriage of the parties is irretrievably broken,” says the divorce petition Crist filed in Pinellas County.

The filing states that Crist anticipates a “collaborative law process” in which the Florida divorce is settled without dispute and antagonistic court battles. He said also that he expects both will abide by a prenuptial agreement they entered into shortly before their 2008 marriage.

Crist met Carole, a wealthy and glamorous fixture on the New York and Hamptons social circuit, in the fall of 2007. The longtime bachelor became engaged in July 2008 when he was a Republican Florida governor widely seen as a top contender to be Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential running mate. They married that December in St. Petersburg, Florida.

From the start, the New York businesswoman who is a Georgetown graduate had enormous influence on Crist. She joined the governor on overseas trade missions and later helped guide his political career.

That included his ill-fated decision to forgo a second term as governor in 2010 and run instead for U.S. Senate, only to wind up dropping out of the GOP to run unsuccessfully as an independent. He narrowly lost his 2014 campaign for governor, but won his congressional seat representing much of Pinellas County this past November.

Late last year Mrs. Crist went on her husband’s campaign payroll as his campaign director.

The former governor has faced criticism for a rocky start to his congressional term, including a late opening his district office and pushing out his well-regarded district director, Vito Sheeley, weeks after announcing his hiring.

Crist said he and his wife separated in early February.

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