Peace, love and abuse
Williamson aides recount her rage
Long-shot Democratic presidential candidate and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson was prone to fits of physical rage and verbally abusive outbursts at aides during her first campaign for the White House in 2020, according to reports.
The 70-year-old Williamson — nicknamed the “Guru to the Glitterati” for her links to politicians and Hollywood celebrities and the author of New York Times bestsellers including “A Return to Love” — menaced those who worked on her presidential bid, according to interviews Politico conducted with 12 former staff members.
“It would be foaming, spitting, uncontrollable rage,” one exaide told the outlet. “It was traumatic. And the experience, in the end, was terrifying.”
Williamson allegedly threw her phone at three of her staffers, shouted so loudly at aides that hotel staff would come to check on their rooms and once slammed her hand so hard into a car door that she was taken to an urgent care facility.
Ending in tears
The 2024 presidential hopeful, who days before her campaign launch called for a more “meaningful conversation” in American politics, also reportedly shrieked at staff until they burst into tears.
“Those reports of Ms. Williamson’s behavior are consistent with my observations, consistent with contemporaneous discussions I had about her conduct with staff members, and entirely consistent with my own personal experience with her behavior on multiple occasions,” said former New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes, who worked as her 2020 campaign director in the Granite State.
The aides also said Williamson, who wrote the 2010 book “A Course in Weight Loss: 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever,” would mock staffers for being too heavy.
Others said the Oprah Winfrey-endorsed spiritual adviser threw tantrums when staff booked her hotel rooms without bathtubs — and blamed aides for canceling events after she asked them to do so.
“She would get caught in these vicious emotional loops where she would yell and scream hysterically,” another aide told Politico. “This was day after day after day. It wasn’t that she was having a bad day or moment. It was just boom, boom, boom — and often for no legitimate reason.”
Williamson also required all her campaign employees to sign nondisclosure agreements, and once floated the idea of tracking their phone activity.
“The message was: ‘Don’t f--k with me because I will make your life a living hell.’ So no one f--ked with her,” one aide said.
Williamson told Politico former aides were “smearing” her. Her campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.