Sometimes it pays to stand by the cheater

DESPITE making history as the first woman to front a major US party ticket, it’s fair to say that not all Democrat supporters are fans of Hillary Clinton. Not by a long stretch. She is a Washington insider, whose political machine is based on institutionalised lobbying and Wall Street patronage, while she rose to prominence on her husband’s coat-tails.

But while a lack of self-made woman credentials is one thing, it is Hillary’s loyalty to the philandering Bill that earns her the most contempt from her critics.

Throughout the years of scandals, lurid allegations and what his advisors called ‘bimbo eruptions’, Hillary has stood by her man. Even when his affair with Monica Lewinsky caused the crisis that led to his impeachment, Hillary was unswerving.

Two years ago, one of her closest friends said that at the time of the public hearings, Hillary justified the affair as a ‘lapse’ on Bill’s part, and branded the 21-year-old intern as a ‘narcissistic loony tune’.

Unbelievably, Hillary also gave Bill credit for trying to break it off with Lewinsky many times, and claimed that the leader of the free world just could not control the besotted youngster.

According to her critics, Hillary’s readiness to throw a young woman under the proverbial bus rather than tackle the deception in her marriage makes her nomination a victory for marriage rather than feminism.

But Hillary’s behaviour is not that unusual. Vilifying the Other Woman, while casting their cheating husbands as powerless to fend off their advances is a common retreat for a woman betrayed.

When forced to stare at the evidence of her man’s womanising in the face, rather than turn a blind eye, Jane Clarke – wife of the sleazy British MP Alan – snootily described her rivals as decidedly ‘below-stairs’.

Even Storm Keating, a relative newlywed compared to these veterans of marital turbulence, absolves her husband Ronan of all blame for his extra-martial affair. She denies ever worrying about her husband’s cheating on his first wife with dancer Francine Cornell.

‘No not at all,’ says Storm. ‘It was obvious that he was one of the good guys who just happened to go through what, unfortunately, a lot of people seem to go through these days. Even good guys can make mistakes but as everyone knows, there’s often a very good reason behind it.’

Now whatever about her tantalising hint about the ‘good reason’ that drove Ronan into the arms of a young dancer behind the back of his wife and mother of his three young children, we can’t blame Storm, who is clearly besotted by her husband – and he by her – for being optimistic.

NO one walks down the aisle without hope in their heart. But likewise no one should walk down the aisle with their eyes closed. An intelligent and capable woman like Hillary Clinton knew what she was getting into when she pledged her troth to a ladies man.

The high-flying barrister Marina Wheeler, who married serial cheater Boris Johnson as the ink dried on the divorce papers from his first marriage, also knew what she was doing.

At least two of the Brexit leader’s extra-marital affairs have resulted in pregnancies but his wife and the mother of his four children still hasn’t budged from his side.

Unlike Boris and Bill, Ronan Keating can’t pave the way for his wife along the corridors of power.

But he opens a door to the celebrity world and a glitzy lifestyle that she may not achieve under her own steam.

Jerry Hall stuck with Mick until his final mistress bore him a child. Maureen Haughey kept a dignified silence about CJ’s trysts.

They prove that for many wives, having their cravings for status, glamour or even children satisfied is compensation for living with a cheater and the heartbreak that entails.

It may not be romantic to say it but people fall for each other for a myriad of reasons and not all of them are nobel or loving.

And nothing reminds us more of this than when a wife takes her anger and fear out on the Other Woman rather than on the person who promised her fidelity forever.