Huffington, Arianna

A Move to the United States

In 1980, Arianna moved to the United States after the end of a nine-year affair with famed British broadcaster, author, and journalist Bernard Levin. In 1985, Arianna met conservative Michael Huffington, a family friend of the Bushes, in San Francisco. The two married in 1986, and moved to Washington, D.C., where Michael served a term as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. Some years later, they moved to California, established residency, and ran Michael's successful 1992 Republican campaign for the House of Representatives. Though Arianna supported many of her husband's moderate causes, she remained close to her liberal upbringing [Page 729]on most issues. Michael would go on to lose his 1994 campaign for the U.S. Senate, and, in 1997, the couple divorced. The terms of their settlement, though never public, are thought to have been generous to Arianna and the couple's two daughters, Christina and Isabella. In 1998, Michael made the public announcement that he was bisexual.

Arianna Huffington campaigns during her run for governor of California in the recall election against Gray Davis.

Politics and Television

In the years just before and following her divorce, Huffington became a well-known pundit on the cable sensation, Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher, where the then moderately conservative Huffington often appeared in pajamas in a large bed, with liberal funnyman and current U.S. Senator for Minnesota, Al Franken, in order to provide comic commentary on the 1996 presidential election. Their work on the show earned Huffington and the Comedy Central team an Emmy nomination, but it also heralded the end of Arianna's conservative-leaning years. In the late 1990s, Arianna would be a loud opponent to the United States’ involvement in the Yugoslav wars. By 2000, she was disillusioned with both parties, and during that year's presidential election, she hosted “shadow conventions” at both the Republican and Democrat National Conventions.

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