The Atlanta woman who says she was Herman Cain’s mistress for 13 years is a down-on-her-luck single mom who once sued a former employer for sexual harassment.
Ginger White surfaced in bombshell fashion on Monday, telling an Atlanta TV station that she’s “not proud” of what she described as long-running sexual shenanigans with the married GOP White House contender.
“I didn’t want to come out this way,” she said in an interview with Atlanta’s FOX affiliate WAGA-TV that put Cain on the defensive even before it was aired.
White described herself in the interview as a jobless former businesswoman. She is middle-aged, has two children and was evicted from her Atlanta home earlier this month, according to a background check done by the TV station.
WAGA reporters also found records showing she has been hit with several eviction notices in DeKalb County, Ga., over the past six years.
She filed for bankruptcy 23 years ago, the station reported. In 2001, she also filed a sexual harassment suit, which was later settled, according to the station.
Her former business partner, Kimberly Vay, once sued her and accused her of stalking, the station reported.
Vay, who did not respond to calls for comment Monday, also sought an order of protection against White, charging that she was bombarded with emails and texts “threatening [a\] lawsuit” and defaming her character.
A judge ruled in favor of Vay in a libel suit she had filed against White, the station reported.
White admits she has struggled as a single mother, but added that her financial woes shouldn’t define her.
“I don’t think that makes me out to be a bad person,” she told the station. “It makes me out to be one of the millions of people right now trying to keep a roof over their head.”
White said she ignored the fact Cain was married during their alleged affair, which she said included trysts in hotel rooms across the country. She says they met at a business conference during the 1990s.
It was pretty simple,” White told WAGA. “It wasn't complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.”
Cain, 65, who has been married for 43 years, went on CNN to deny the affair before White’s complete WAGA-TV interview was broadcast live.
His lawyer, Lin Wood, told the TV station that because White hasn't alleged harassment or assault, the matter doesn't belong in the news.
“The public's right to know and the media's right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one's bedroom door,” Wood wrote.
White said she came forward because she is upset over how Cain handled previous allegations that he sexually harassed four women, two of whom reportedly received cash settlements from the National Restaurant Association, where he was CEO during the 1990s.
“It bothered me that they were being demonized, sort of; they were treated as if they were automatically lying, and the burden of proof was on them,” White said. “I felt bad for them.”
Cain, the former head of the Godfather’s Pizza chain, was running near the top of the polls before the claims of sexual harassment broke.
Last week, Cain dropped to third place in a national GOP poll run by Quinnipiac University. He came in with 14% of the vote, behind ascendant former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
He said Monday he would stay in the race as long as he had his wife’s support. But White put even more pressure on him, offering what she said was proof of the alleged hush-hush romance.
She gave the TV station loads of cell phone records, and Cain’s personal cell phone, which he answered when someone from the station called it.
She also gave the station’s reporter two books Cain signed for her. In one of them, his 2001 autobiography “CEO of SELF,” Cain added a little note: “Friends are forever! Everything else is a bonus.
Georgia Woman Claims 13-Year Affair with Herman Cain: MyFoxATLANTA.com
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