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By ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press Writer Erik Schelzig, Associated Press
Writer Tue Jun 1, 6:43 pm ET
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Al Gore once claimed his romance with wife Tipper inspired
the novel "Love Story" and the couple shared an uncomfortably long kiss before
millions on the stage of the Democratic National Convention.
Now, after a 40-year marriage that survived the near-death of a child and the
heartache of losing the disputed 2000 presidential election, the former high
school sweethearts are calling it quits.
"After a great deal of thought and discussion, we have decided to separate,"
the Gores wrote in an e-mail to friends on Tuesday. "This is very much a mutual
and mutually supportive decision that we have made together."
Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider confirmed the statement came from the Gores, but
declined to comment further.
The Gores told friends they "grew apart" after four decades of marriage and
there was no affair involved, according to two longtime close associates and
family friends.
The couple had carved out separate lives over time, with the 62-year-old former
vice president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate on the road frequently, said the
associates, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to speak on the couple's behalf.
"Their lives had gotten more and more separated," one of the friends said.
The couple, who own homes in Nashville and Gore's hometown of Carthage, Tenn.,
had reportedly purchased an $8.8 million estate in Montecito, Calif., this
spring.
Married on May 19, 1970, at the National Cathedral in Washington, the Gores
crafted an image of a happy couple during his eight-year stint as vice
president in the 1990s and a presidential candidate in 2000.
Their warm relationship stood in sharp contrast to the Clinton marriage rocked
by Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, a scandal
that hung over Gore's own presidential campaign.
At the time, Gore said his wife was "someone I've loved with my whole heart
since the night of my high school senior prom." Then, as if to prove it, he
planted that long, awkward kiss on her during the 2000 Democratic presidential
convention.
Such public affection did much to enliven the former vice president's stuffy
image. Tipper Gore, 61, painted a picture of a playful relationship, saying in
a 2000 interview with The Associated Press that she teased her husband while he
prepared for presidential debates by e-mailing him "lascivious" messages.
"He e-mails me back and says, 'I'm losing my concentration now,'" she said.
"He's a little bit more of a gregarious flirt than people would realize all
within bounds," she added.
In a speech to the 2004 Democratic convention, Gore said he wanted to thank
"with all my heart my children and grandchildren, and especially my beloved
partner in life, Tipper."
The "Love Story" claim came in 1997, when Gore told a reporter he and Tipper
were the inspiration for Erich Segal's 1970s best-seller. A surprised Segal
said that Gore, whom he knew at Harvard, had inspired one side of his male
hero's personality the one controlled by a domineering father but his book
had nothing to do with Tipper Gore.
In a letter written to then-girlfriend Tipper as a 17-year-old college
freshman, Al Gore hinted at that dynamic. "Mother's having a fit about me
riding the motorcycle back to Harvard. Dad's mad at my long hair," he wrote.
The Gores have four children, Karenna, Kristin, Sarah and Albert III, all now
adults. Their son underwent rehab treatment in 2007 after marijuana and
prescription drugs were found in his car when he was pulled over for driving
100 mph in his Toyota Prius.
After losing the 2000 election, Gore turned his attention to climate change,
undertaking a worldwide campaign which led in 2007 to a Nobel Peace Prize and
an Oscar for the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
The couple were married about six months when Gore deployed to Vietnam as an
Army public information officer. When he got home, he landed a job as a
reporter at The Tennessean in Nashville, and his wife worked there as a
photographer. Her interest in photography continued after she left journalism
and she usually had a camera with her while helping her husband on his
campaigns.
Gore later served in his father's former seats in Congress for 16 years.
Determined to avoid pitfalls that snared his father, who was accused of being
out of touch, Gore kept a punishing schedule, traveling home to Tennessee for
open meetings three weekends a month and leaving wife Tipper alone in
Washington with their four young children.
Gore first ran for president in 1988 at age 39 but drew little support outside
the South. A planned bid for the 1992 nomination was put aside after the Gores'
6-year-old son Albert III almost died after being hit by a car in 1989.
"It was a very spiritual time for both of us," Tipper Gore later wrote. "In
Al's case, he decided to write a book and not to run for president in 1992."
The book was "Earth in the Balance," and Al Gore ended up in the thick of the
1992 campaign anyway as Bill Clinton's running mate.
In Washington, the Gores were a power couple with a light-hearted touch. On
Halloween, they would dress in costumes to greet trick-or-treaters at the vice
president's mansion. One year she was a puppy and he was dressed as Underdog.
In the 2000 campaign interview, Tipper acknowledge Al had his faults. He once
gave her a Weedeater for her birthday, but he learned to be more sensitive over
the years, she said.
"He's very much a gentleman you know, with me around the house," Tipper said.
"I know he's dog tired and he could be sitting down and doing something and I
need something across the room, he'll get up and get it."