For years, the rumors had been that there wasn't much to the marriage between Monica Conyers and Rep. John Conyers.
Now, Monica Conyers is validating some of those rumors. She's filed for divorce to end the 25 years of marriage. He in turn, has counter-filed for divorce.
Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press reports that Monica Conyers, a former Detroit City Council member, who went to prison for public corruption, filed for divorce on Sept. 3 in Wayne County Circuit Court, claiming "a breakdown of the marriage relationship to the extent that the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and there remains no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved."
The Freep reports that John Conyers is not contesting the divorce.
The Washington Post in a 2009 article raised questions as to the quality of the marriage in a story about her bribery case and the fact there was no evidence that Congressman Conyers knew what had been going on.
The Post article stated:
Allies of John Conyers, who prizes his record of jousting with the Bush administration over its approach to civil rights and national security, say that he attends to few details outside his legislative duties and largely leads a separate life from his wife of nearly two decades.
The article went on to say:
The marriage has been elusive from the start. The former Monica Ann Esters took a job in the lawmaker's Washington office in the late 1980s, before moving on to work on his mayoral campaign. They married in 1990, a month before their first son was born in Detroit's Grace Hospital. Conyers was marrying for the first time at age 61. Esters was 25. Her political ambitions were only beginning.
Charlie LeDuff, in his book, Detroit: An American Autopsy, writes that he met Monica Conyers at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit while she was still a city council member about seven years ago, and he recounted her saying:
"The congressman and I don't spend much time together any more, but that's our marriage and it works for us."
