Ex-wife of Trump aide Rob Porter tells of marriage

Jennifer Willoughby, the second wife of President Trump’s staff secretary Rob Porter has spoken on the record to DailyMail.com about her abusive marriage to the man described as one of the most important players in the Oval Office.

Willoughby, 39, told DailyMail.com she was ‘walking on eggshells’ during their marriage due to his explosive anger.

Porter’s first wife Colbie Holderness confirmed to DailyMail.com: ‘He was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive and that is why I left.’

Last week, DailyMail.com revealed that Porter has been dating White House Director of Communications Hope Hicks. 

When reached for comment,  Porter told DailyMail.com: ‘I will not comment about these matters, beyond stating that many of these allegations are slanderous and simply false.’ 

John Kelly, Chief of Staff commented:  ‘Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor and I can’t say enough good things about him. He is a friend, a confidante and a trusted professional. I am proud to serve alongside him.’

‘I have worked directly with Rob Porter nearly every day for the last year and the person I know is someone of the highest integrity and exemplary character,’ said Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told DailyMail.com.

‘Those of us who have the privilege of knowing him are better people because of it.’

Willoughby claims that on December 22, 2010, Porter pulled her naked from the shower by the shoulders and yelled at her. She refused to join his family on a vacation after that.

Porter has been described as one of the most important players in the Oval Office

Hope Hicks, 29, was spotted stepping out of her D.C. apartment with White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, 38, ten days ago

‘I want to be very clear when I say this,’ Willoughby said. ‘I don’t want to be married to him. I would not recommend anyone to date him or marry him. But I definitely want him in the White House and the position he is in. I think his integrity and ability to do his job is impeccable. And the majority of the issues he suffers from are very personal and intimate.’

The couple married at Thanksgiving 2009. 

He called her a ‘f**king b***h’ on their honeymoon at Myrtle Beach between Christmas and New Year, she says.

‘We had already been fighting. I had already seen more extreme versions of the overreactions of anger that I had seen back in August’ before they were married.

‘I can’t remember what triggered it. He lashed out and was really angry and both under his breath and explicitly to me called me a ‘f***ing b***h’ and ‘f***ing ridiculous’. He accused me of not caring about him or not caring about his needs.

‘That whole week, or however long it was, several days, [of honeymoon] was spent with me trying not to make him upset.’

Jennie, as she’s known to her friends. said that his anger would be unpredictable.

‘I frequently would do favors for friends, like watch their dog or go pick up their daughter, and he would be angry that I would do that.’

‘In the first weeks and months, his explanation for his anger was that his first marriage had been very toxic and rooted in arguments and accusations and manipulation and he was carrying over from that relationship. 

‘He would say that he was so used to being treated this way by his ex-wife that he was projecting that on to me. That was the explanation.’

Jennie said that she left manipulated throughout the marriage.

‘He’s very intelligent, extremely good with his words and is a lawyer by profession and is able to take words that I had said and use them in a way that it would confuse me as to what I meant,’ she told DailyMail.com in the bombshell interview. 

‘He would challenge my intelligence or a statement that I had made by implying that I couldn’t have possibly come up with it on my own and that I must have been influenced by someone.

‘I would start to doubt myself. He was using words against me. It was his norm in dealing with behavior he didn’t like.’

Jennie said that she never saw Rob take his anger out on other people – ‘not even road rage’ – but that is was all behind closed doors.

‘That was something that was interesting to me, from a case study perspective. It does seem to be very much focused in an intimate, romantic relationship. It’s almost as though the anger that could have been place on his father was placed on the romantic partner.’  

‘Fairly soon after New Year in 2010, I started seeing a therapist and requested that Rob see a therapist because I was so distressed about his anger,’ she reveals.

‘I also had met with a bishop in the Mormon Church about his anger. It came to a head and in February or March 2010, I was so worn down and exhausted by the anger that I requested we have a separation.

I never received specific threats from Rob he was just often angry and it was oppressive and I started to take on the blame and the weight of his lack of self-worth.

‘Over the course of the years of our marriage, I can think of several times where I was collapsing on the ground in tears and saying, “just leave me alone, just stop” because the anger and the insults were too much.

[He would say] “That I was worthless, that I was a liar” this is not one instance, these are things that he might have said in a rage. That I always got my way, that I was selfish, that I didnt care about him about his needs. Any version of those types of statements, heard enough times, with enough force behind them are devastating.’

She had a miscarriage at six weeks pregnant towards the end of their marriage. 

‘The stress of being pregnant in that marriage was hard and then the shame and depression of not being pregnant anymore was also hard,’ she said.

On June 19,2010, she filed a protective order against Rob because he violated their separation agreement at the time and would not leave their apartment. 

According to a complaint filed with the police,  he punched the glass on the door to their home, cutting his hand in the process at which point she called the police. He then left and following that she filed a temporary protective order.

Willoughby claims that on December 22, 2010, Porter pulled her naked from the shower by the shoulders and yelled at her: ‘[It happened] just after our first anniversary….It was a glass shower door, he opened it and dragged me by my shoulders out of the shower to yell. Immediately upon seeing my reaction to that, he released me and apologized but it doesn’t take away that he was angry enough that that happened’

On June 19, 2010, Jennifer filed a protective order against Rob because he violated their separation agreement and refused to leave their apartment

Willoughby wrote in a criminal complaint, that Porter would not leave after she asked him to leave her apartment 

She claims Porter punched the glass on the door to their home, cutting his hand in the process at which point she called the police

The couple married in 2009, but the marriage ended in divorce 

The physical assault on December 22, 2010. 

Willoughby said : ‘[It happened] just after our first anniversary. I cannot remember what the fight was about but I excused myself from the fight in a way that was typical at that time. I certainly was not meek and mild and said, ”I’m not going to fight you anymore” and stormed off and went to take a shower.

‘He was not done fighting with me. It was a glass shower door, he opened it and dragged me by my shoulders out of the shower to yell. Immediately upon seeing my reaction to that, he released me and apologized but it doesn’t take away that he was angry enough that that happened.’

The attack upset her so greatly that she refused to join his family on a Christmas vacation they were leaving for the following day. She also asked him to leave them home.

‘He was very contrite and apologetic at that point. In all of the anger and all of the name-calling, he had never physical with me.’

Willoughby tells DailyMail.com tha Porter called her last year and demanded she take down her blog posts that referred to their marriage – she did not name him.

He asked her what she had told the FBI about their relationship during her interview with the FBI about his security clearance in February 2017. 

She said that his first wife, was also interviewed. 

‘My experience of our entire marriage was being with a man who could be both charming and romantic and fun – and even thoughtful and kind; and horribly angry and manipulative. It was the duality of both of those things existing at the same time and not necessarily knowing what in his life would trigger the anger,’ Willoughby said

At that time they talked, she claims, she spoke with his first wife and she said that they had both experience the same abuse.

Willoughby also received also received a message from his previous girlfriend -before Hicks –  telling her that Rob was considering hiring a private investigator to look into her and ‘employ’ a journalist to write about her.

DailyMail.com could not reach Porter’s ex-girlfriend for comment.  

‘My experience of our entire marriage was being with a man who could be both charming and romantic and fun – and even thoughtful and kind; and horribly angry and manipulative. It was the duality of both of those things existing at the same time and not necessarily knowing what in his life would trigger the anger. 

‘Or what in his life would draw out the kindness and the chivalry. That’s a crazy-making space for a spouse to be in, that I somehow have no control over the quality of my relationship.

‘The terminology is “walking on eggshells” – you don’t know which man is going to walk in the door. Or you don’t know what seemingly innocuous comment is going to be interpreted differently. 

I had a friend’s daughter over to carve pumpkins for Halloween and he sulked and pouted and didn’t join us. And of course after she left, he was angry – “why would I have someone over, why would you help her [my friend] out when she could be doing this herself?” There was no rational explanation as to why that would make him angry at that particular moment.’

Porter is a Massachusetts-born Harvard graduate who went to the Ivy League school with presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. 

Hicks and Porter were seen smiling and laughing over drinks as they enjoyed each other’s company at Rosa Mexicano in Washington D.C., hours before they went home together 

He also went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and spent two years as a Mormon missionary in London.

Before being tapped to join the new administration, he had been chief of staff for veteran Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. He has also worked for Republican senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Mike Lee of Utah.

His job has been described as one of the most important in the Oval Office as he, working with chief of staff John Kelly, controls the information that reaches the president.

‘Porter, a little-known White House aide who has avoided getting caught up in any of the West Wing drama that has plagued the administration for the better part of seven months, serves to review everything before it makes it to the president’s desk,’ Business Insider wrote in September.

‘Given how the president has shared dubious information at times when aides have presented him with reports from less-than-credible sources, Porter’s role has an outsized importance,’ it added.

‘Talk to people who worked with him in the past, and they’ll repeatedly mention his intelligence, experience, and team-first attitude.’

His father, Roger Porter, was an aide to President George H.W. Bush.

Hope Hicks, 29,  and Porter had doing their best to keep their romance under wraps when they were spotted together with friends at low-key restaurant Rosa Mexicano near downtown Washington two weeks ago.

They did not show any sign of affection and did not sit next to each other at the restaurant.

But the moment they got in the cab to go back to Hicks’ D.C. apartment  they started cuddling and kissing in the back seat. 

At the end of their evening together, Hicks and Porter hailed a cab, but as soon as it took off, the pair moved from their sides of the car to the middle and began kissing 

During the taxi ride the secret lovers Hicks and Porter could be seen cuddling in the back seat. One eyewitness said Porter could be seen kissing Hope’s neck 

Hope exited the taxi while Rob pays for the ride before they both enter her D.C. apartment at the end of the evening

‘As soon as the taxi took off they both moved from their sides of the cab to the middle. Rob was kissing Hope’s neck all the way home,’ an eyewitness to the red-hot White House couple said. 

Porter, 38, had been living with a willowy blonde political appointee, sources say before he began dating Hicks.

Public records document that the woman was living in his apartment in Arlington, Virginia. 

The woman split with Porter around Thanksgiving, a White House source tells DailyMailTV exclusively. 

Senator Orrin Hatch, commented:  ‘It’s incredibly discouraging to see such a vile attack on such a decent man. Shame on any publication that would print this—and shame on the politically motivated, morally bankrupt character assassins that would attempt to sully a man’s good name. 

‘I know Rob. I’ve known him for years, both as a close friend and as a personal advisor. He is kind and considerate towards all. The country needs more honest, principled people like Rob Porter, which is why I hope that this cynical campaign to discredit his character ultimately fails.’

“It’s incredibly discouraging to see such a vile attack on such a decent man. Shame on any publication that would print this—and shame on the politically motivated, morally bankrupt character assassins that would attempt to sully a man’s good name. I know Rob. I’ve known him for years, both as a close friend and as a personal advisor. He is kind and considerate towards all. The country needs more honest, principled people like Rob Porter, which is why I hope that this cynical campaign to discredit his character ultimately fails.”

Senator Orrin Hatch