‘The View’: Did Meghan McCain’s Husband Say He Didn’t Want to Date Her?
Meghan McCain doesn’t speak in too much depth about her equally (or perhaps more) conservative husband Ben Domenech on ABC’s The View. But the Republican TV personality and political commentator has been married since 2017. She married Domenech after dating her now-husband for several years amid the health struggles and eventual passing of her father, the late Sen. John McCain.
Since then, Domenech has pushed back against several of McCain’s critics on social media. The couple also weathered a devastating miscarriage, and McCain said he was her rock during the tragic time.
But years ago, it doesn’t look like the two were big fans of one another. An unearthed tweet from 2012 indicates that Domenech wasn’t always romantically intrigued by his now-wife.
McCain and Domenech moved up their wedding due to John McCain’s health
McCain frequently spoke about Ben Domenech on The View as her “mystery man” in the years leading up to their wedding. The pair dated for two years before getting engaged.
Then, shortly after her father was diagnosed with brain cancer at the Mayo Clinic, The Daily Caller reported that the The View host announced her engagement. “I am engaged. I love him very much and I’m very happy…It’s not the most romantic story,” she said in Jun. 2017.
John McCain’s glioblastoma diagnosis also inspired the couple to change their wedding plans. They originally planned to elope, McCain told People, but she realized she wanted her father to walk her down the aisle. She also wanted to make sure that her father could see her get married before he died. The pair married in Nov. 2017 in Arizona.
“There was something about Ben being there for me, at my father’s treatments. I was like, ‘This is love.’ I felt this overwhelming sense of time and my own mortality. We ended up saying, ‘Let’s do this now,’” McCain told People about her decision to get married.
McCain’s husband has weathered a few scandals over the years
Ben Domenech now works as the publisher of the conservative outlet The Federalist. He also co-founded a conservative blog, RedState. But McCain’s husband has courted more than a few controversies over the years.
In 2006, Domenech was hired to write a column for The Washington Post. However, it was eventually revealed that he plagiarized several of his articles from other outlets, including the student newspaper at his alma mater, The College of William and Mary. The then-24-year-old resigned and apologized.
In 2019, Domenech also drew criticism for his somewhat crude defense of McCain after she appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers and disagreed with the host about issues surrounding Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Congresswoman. After Domenech issued some choice words to Seth Meyers on Twitter, he apologized publicly.
McCain’s former public reputation may have soured Domenech at one point
While Domenech and McCain seem to have a happy marriage now, it seems like the former wasn’t always into his now-wife.
McCain used to have quite a different reputation as an “edgier” conservative. Despite her professed political party’s original position on certain social issues like gay marriage, McCain openly spoke out in favor of LGBT rights. She was also rowdier, more outspoken, and more open about drinking, as well as sex and dating (which she now doesn’t discuss on The View), than many other members of her party.
These differences from the rest of the Republican party (or at least some of its biggest public advocates) sometimes led other conservatives to disavow her at the time. It seems that Domenech may have been one of them at one point.
Domenech said in 2012 that he didn’t want to date McCain
After Domenech and McCain got engaged, Twitter users unearthed an old tweet of Domenech’s that seemed a bit harsh, according to The Daily Caller.
In 2012, Domenech retweeted a Mediaite article about McCain’s book, America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter to Freedom. The headline read, “How to Score a Date With Sexy Bitch Author Meghan McCain.” Domenech’s comment above the article read simply, “DO NOT WANT.” After his engagement to McCain was announced, Twitter users wondered if Domenech had meant what he said and how and why things had changed over time.
So, was Domenech just joking? Did he have a crush on his future wife and was trying to hide it? Was he simply not into McCain’s public face at the time? Or was he really turned off by her at one point before their relationship blossomed into love? We may never know, as neither McCain nor Domenech has ever publicly commented on the tweet.
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Source:cheatsheet.com
