ALWAYS A BRIDE
4 marriages fuel memoir by Ann Landers’ only child
Chicago native Margo Howard, the only child of the late advice columnist Ann Landers, and herself a longtime advice columnist who started her newspaper career at the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily News, has penned a very personal memoir, “Eat Drink & Remarry.”
The subtitle of the book says it all: “Confessions of a SerialWife.” The book is Howard’s humorous take on her journey through life and her experiences of being married four times.
In a recent phone chat, Howard explained her rationale for writing her third book. “I have met girls who are embarrassed or ashamed or feel they have failed that they have been married and divorced.
“That certainly never occurred to me! I never felt shame or feeling I’d failed. I want other people to look at it that way, too,” said Howard, who stressed she wanted to get across the fact that life provides not just “second chances” but many more beyond that.
The author, who wrote the “Dear Prudence” advice column for Slate for eight years and then a nationally syndicated column under her own name for seven years, has a crisp opinion why some long relationships do work.
“The people in long relationships are usually lucky rather than smart— unless they’re middle- aged when they get together, because then you get smart about what you’re doing. Experience is one of the best teachers, if not the best teacher,” said Howard with a raspy chuckle.
“I don’t think too many marital memoirs have been done. I know that my life is a little unsual, and I thought it would be interesting for people to get an honest look into someone else’s life, with some advice woven through it.”
Howard’s marital journey started in Boston in 1960 while she was attending Brandeis University. “Mr. Right No. 1” was fellow Chicagoan John Coleman, the entrepreneur who, as Howard put it, “did deals,” including developing Chicago’s Tremont and Whitehall hotels. That tumultuous, decade- long marriage produced Howard’s three children.
Looking for stability but finding boredom instead, Howard next married “Mr. Right No. 2,” a funeral director named Jules Furth. They divorced after a little more than three years. Howard called that her “designer marriage.”
“Mr. Right No. 3” was the actor Ken Howard, whom Margo met while interviewing him when he was in Chicago with a production of “Equus.” Their marriage lasted 14 years and Margo kept Howard’s name after they divorced. She writes fondly about him and especially how wonderful a stepfather he has been to her children.
Finally, Howard found “Mr. Right No. 4,” Bostonbased cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. RonaldWeintraub. Asked why she thinks this fourth marriage has lasted and will continue to do so, Howard said, “In a good way, we’re a case of opposites attract. He is a very serious and intellectual person. He has three Harvard degrees, and I didn’t finish school, having dropped out of Brandeis in my senior year — to marry ‘ Mr. Right No. 1’!
“While Ron has lovely humor, I am the entertainment. He tolerates me very well. He handles me very well. I have no illusions about my personality. I am high maintainance. He manages me with a very deft hand.”