Jezebel
Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey may have officially one-upped Eliot Spitzer in terms of "goobernatorial" sex scandal sordidness. McGreevey, who left office in disgrace in November 2004 after admitting to an affair with a male colleague, is now being accused by another former male employee of having with the then-Governor and his wife, Dina Matos. Theodore Pedersen, who was McGreevey's driver and traveling aide, has told the Newark Star-Ledger that from 1999 to 2001, he had "weekly romps" with Dina and Jim "that typically began with dinner at T.G.I. Friday's and ended with a threesome at McGreevey's condo in Woodbridge." Jesus, Jim. Fridays? Are those Southwestern egg roll tequila shooters really a turn on?
Anyway — Pederson says he's coming forward now because of the custody battle for the McGreeveys' daughter Jacqueline is scheduled to go to trial in May. He also says he is especially offended by the interviews Dina Matos gave to reporters last week as the Spitzer scandal broke. "I wanted to get this out now because it was so offensive to me that [Dina Matos] goes on television playing the victim," Pedersen said in the Star-Ledger. "She's trying to make this a payday for herself. She should have told the truth about the three of us." (Matos has also written a book and given interviews to Oprah and O, the Oprah Magazine about about her failed marriage.)
Matos has asked for more than $600,000 in "damages" as compensation for Jim's alleged lies about his sexual orientation. (Matos' fortunes are more tethered to her ex-husband than those of Silda Wall Spitzer will ever be: Matos never graduated from college, while Silda's Harvard Law degree is a far more stable contingency plan. ) She also seeks full custody of Jacqueline along with alimony. According to the Star-Ledger, "McGreevey has denied any fraud and, in court filings, countered that he fulfilled his duties as husband because he gave his wife a child and companionship." He's asked for joint-custody of Jacqueline. Pederson could be one of the first witnesses to testify for Jim McGreevey on behalf of the prosecution.
McGreevey Aide Says He Had Sexual Trysts With Ex-governor, Wife [Newark Star-Ledger]
Matos McGreevey Says She Feels Pain Of Silda Spitzer, Thinks NY Gov Should Resign [Newark Star-Ledger]
How Could She Not Have Known? [O: The Oprah Magazine]
Ex-N.J. Gov. Had 3-Way Sex, Aide Claims [CBS News]
Related: Public Infidelity, Private Debate: Not My Husband (Right?) [New York Times]
Comments
Nasty girl. OK, I now know way too much about the sex life of Governors. Can I be excused?
Is this an attempt to stir up shit between NY and NJ? Because I'm gonna start by saying that NJ drivers are the WORST!!!
Friday's serves HUGE blended drinks. So what followed comes as no surprise.
Am I weird in rooting for McGreev through all of this? Yeah, probably.
Just what their kid needs. For the children, people.
The way I read that article is that it sounds like it was more of a cuckold fetish situation than a gay or threesome situation.
HA! Take that, New Jersey!
there has to be some point at which you are not famous or important enough for your threesomes to be considered news.
Uh, after a visit to Fridays, I think the last thing I would be in the mood for would be sex, let alone a threesome. Heartburn/messed up tummy/food hangover -- none of those are aphrodisiacs.
TGI Fridays has the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown menu. KLASSY!
@SoleilMoonPie: no way. i call it even, and most of my life has been spent in both. jughandles are the shit, yo.
@RyanB: That, and their giant Bone Crushers/Baltimore Zoos would send anyone into a drunken fugue.
Well, really. Who DOESN'T get turned on by Friday's? Their chicken Alfredo is to absolutely die for. Makes me want to do sexy time just thinking about it.
"Even as I saw him blowing Teddy when he refused to go down on me, I had no idea he was gay."
This wouldn't surprised me, that woman always seemed a bit off to me. Never trust a Dina (I'm looking at you White Oprah!!!)
Question - Are people in office not allowed to have anything but the most vanilla of sex?
hahahaha. this is funny. only because I don't care much for Dina, and hearing about her being a shish kabob with the gayvernor and the driver is just too much to handle.
i want to be able to say that i go on "weekly romps" with someone; that sounds so fun. that said, i call bullshit on this guy, because jim mcgreevy does not seem like a TGIFridays kind of guy.
@stacyinbean: haha. orange oprah! orange oprah!
Elliot Spitzer is so happy right now.
Why not Red Lobster??
didn't see this one coming.
"She should have told the truth about the three of us."
Because all politicians and their wives dish to the press about the threesomes they've allegedly had with staffers. Love how the chauffeur tries to make it some moral imperative to tell the world about his exploits.
The older I get, the more I'm grossed out by the idea of a threesome. It just seems like so much work. Figuring out who does what and so on. Shit, I'm less adventurous than a political stepford wife!
@Macloserboy: From the story the guy is telling the guv wasn't going down on either of them.
I believe this guy because cuckold fetishes are way more common than people realize and this has all the elements of the way cuck fetishes often play out.
Oh ick. New Jersey you are sooooo dirty.
Back in late 2003, I was a purchasing agent in NJ. The wife of one of my vendor's was one of Dina McGreevy's personal assistants. It was well known that Jimmy had his boys and she had her own... I don't know that they shared toys, but they def had an arrangement.
@zivah: It depends. If you are preaching about the "sanctity of marriage" and the importance of "family values" and whatnot, then threesomes might just betray your public image. Noone likes a hypocrite.
If you want to get freaky within the confines of your marriage (and we all know how nasty those political wives can be) that would be your business. And it would likely stay that way. Once you bring in other parties is when you are asking for trouble.
I knew Dina was freak!
I don't know if it was because McGreevey came out to the public as gay, or because it didn't involve prostitutes, or what have you, but watching Silda stand by her husband was more devastating than when Dina did it. Dina almost looked non-chalant about it, now I know why.
@bananaballs: Jughandles confuse the hell out of me! Plus they always make me think of love handles. But yeah, I admit, NY drivers suck too. One of these days I'm gonna start shooting people who don't use turn signals.
Wow. I remember when McGreev's story broke, I was Team Governor out of gay solidarity. As more details came out, I felt bad for his wife. I actually hope this story is true because it would make it some kind of karmic justice because any fame whore must be punished be it man or woman, gay or straight or bi....
I'm not up on my NJ gubanatorial history -- was he Gov in 1999? Seems unlikely that the Governor would be dining at TGI Fridays on such a regular basis.
Or maybe things really are that different in New Jersey...
angryblackgurl: Seriously that would have been more classy - or maybe Sizzler. Take me to Sizzler and you can get it.
@LoveNoelG: In McGreevey's defense he never babbled on about "family values" or the "sanctity of marriage."
This story may explain one part of the McGreevey saga that has always puzzled me. He had the details of her first divorce (which was granted in Canada) sealed. Though his first wife swears the divorce wasn't because he was gay.
It now comes to mind that what he was trying to suppress in that divorce proceeding was that he might get off on watching his wife with other men.
@magiciannamedgob: I agree. I really don't care if the story is true, but the TGIF makes it sound very untrue. If you are the Governor and have a third play thing in your marriage, you probably don't take him out in public. And if you have a personal chef, you probably don't eat at Friday's.
@Rhody: The article said it was before he was in office.
Hey guys, just because these three did it in a Fridays doesn't mean all of New Jersey does. Come on! (That's what happened, right?)
@RyanB: i don't care how big the drinks are, i'm still surprised... and kinda grossed out.
@amoureuse, an african woman with intact genitalia: Take me to The 99, buy me some gold fever wings and you can bend me any which way you want.
@Lymed: I was a reporter for Gannett New Jersey is 1999 (and McGreevy was not the guv, he was the mayor of Woodbridge.)
And it was known that he did go to TGI Fridays.
@amoureeuse
Sizzler fell off years ago. If a man was trying to liquor me up to get me geeked for a threesome, I would prefer Friday's over Sizzler.
@drunkexpatwriter: I read right over the year.
Even if it is true, there is a difference between a couple involving a third person in something they do together and in one person in the marriage having affairs without the other knowing. She may have known he was having affairs, she may have been having affairs, she may have known he is gay. But none of that is proven if this guy's story is proven true.
Yuck, TMI with these skanky governors. At least our fallen governor, John rowland, was just greedy, accepting gifts and steering contracts.
And happy shamrock day to everyone. I'm not Irish, but I'm going to kiss my collection of Shaun Cassidy pix from old "Tiger Beat" magazines.
@Rhody: The thing is at the time he was the Woodbridge mayor and he made a point of being a "regular guy."
At that time he could have easily dined out at the Edison TGIF's on Route 1 without anyone thinking twice about it.
I think this is yet another game of one-upmanship being played by NJ. You can hear the state going "SEE! We had a better sex scandal than your governor! NEENER NEENER!"
@Lymed: Agreed. My point is that this story has zilch to do with him being or not being gay, and in a lot of ways it rings way true.
I'm not against cuck fetishes/wife watching. I am against Jim hiring the guy he was banging behind his wife's back and giving him a very high taxpayer paid salary!
New Jersey and you. And you. And you too. Perfect together.
Sorry, Spitzer is WAAAAY grosser. At least his wife knew about it. Cause she was, like, there.
Wrong, just wrong. TGIFriday's is so wrong.
remember that Senate candidate (IL) - the one Obama beat - that dropped out of the race b/c he and his ex-wife went to swingers clubs when they were out of the country? mess. I was more creeped out by the fact that she was/is on star trek.
Could have been worse - could have been Joe's Crab Shack. (ba-bum ching!)
WHO CARES WHO THEY HAVE SEX WITH?! Jeeeez.
Dudes, okay, I am a curse to state governors. When I was living in South Dakota, Governor Bill Janklow ran over some guy and it was this huge controversy. I moved to Jersey and then the McGreevey thing busted out. I work in NYC now, and now we have the whole Spitzer controversy. How come I can't live somewhere with normal governors? Is there something in the water?
@westendgirl
wait, they have Joe's Crab Shack in Jersey? I thought that was Southern thing?
@drunkenexpat
McGreevey tried to spin it as a gay-rights tolerance issue, as if it really wasn't about him putting his boyfriend on the payroll.
Damn, I miss New Jersey!
@amoureuse, an african woman with intact genitalia:Why not Popeyes???
from a similar story on Queerty: "a hard-core consensual sex orgy", thats what the guy described it as. I got kind of turned on, until i started giggling when i read foreplay included TGIFridays
@uhoh-ohno: Yeah, with the boyfriend on the payroll thing Jimmy was way out of line and he was full of spinning it as a gay rights issue.
But, this story doesn't really have any of those elements to it. There's no "cheating" in the sense of doing something behind a spouses back.There was no misspent government money Heck, it looks like Jimmy wasn't even getting laid at all in this scenario!
I hope Friday's capitalizes on the product placement by starting a "come get your blue margarita with the bendy straw and extreme fajita poppers before your carnal fuck spree" ad campaign.
@TruculentandUnreliable: Yeah, Spitzer skeeves me out more than this. For some reason, I know this is terrible, but I'm thinking of the Friends episode in an alternative universe where Ross's marriage is in the toilet because Carol ha