Kati Marton shares her 'Love Story,' flaws and all

Kati Marton, 63, has had quite the life. NPR and ABC News correspondent, author and mother, she was married to late newsman Peter Jennings and then to diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who died in 2010. And now she's out with a memoir, Paris: A Love Story (Simon & Schuster, $24), dropping names and more than a few bombshells along the way. USA TODAY caught up with her by phone in New York. Right by Billy Bustamante
Author and newswoman Kati Marton shares her love for Paris in her new book.
Right by Billy Bustamante
Author and newswoman Kati Marton shares her love for Paris in her new book.
Q: You touch on everything here. Affairs, abortions, temper tantrums. Why did you write this book now?A: First of all, this is an honest account, primarily a romantic story, a coming-of-age story, a journalist's story. There's no point in writing a memoir if you're not going to be honest. This is not, however, a tell-all. I treat both of these men with respect and love.We are all human beings with all the flaws and quirks and contradictions. I would hope that neither you nor anyone else will pull out only the tabloid details, because they are not what my life is about. My life has not been perfect. I want people to see the full story.Q: You say you flew too close to the sun sometimes. Is that necessarily a bad thing? You came out alive. A: No, it's not. I don't regret the 15 years I was married to Peter (they divorced in 1995). I have the most wonderful children. We had a good run.Q: I had no idea that Jennings could be so moody and difficult. Why did you put up with it for so long?A: People need to know that public figures — Peter and Richard included — are not paragons of perfection. They're made of the same human stuff as everyone else. Just because Peter Jennings (who died in 2005) was the great TV journalist he was didn't mean that he didn't have tremendous insecurities.So, folks, let's get real here. This is a human account of a life in the stream of history, full of pain and full of struggle. Photos from 'Paris: A Love Story' by Kati MartonThe loves she lost: Above, Marton lounges at a Paris cafe with her first husband, ABC newsman Peter Jennings. Below, the Parisian tradition continues with second husband Richard Holbrooke, who died in December 2010.Q: You paint the picture that you and Holbrooke were soul mates, yet you went off and had an affair once in Budapest, Hungary. What gives?A: Again, I would hope that any misstep on my part would not swamp the story. My life is more than about a misstep. After eight books and raising two good children and working hard and owning up to my mistakes, I keep going. I suffered the greatest loss of a great partner, and I did not go into the fetal position.The reason I write about this misstep is because it reflects so well on Richard. It shows him to be so human and understanding. He knew that this was not about who we were and what held us together. We worked our way back.Q: You drop little tidbits here and there — that Barbara Walters wasn't all that nice to you in the beginning at ABC and that Nancy Reagan came across as controlling. Did you end up actually liking either of them?A: Nancy got the director of the CIA to vet me! (When Marton asked for a interview for a book on first ladies.) That's so Nancy Reagan.But Barbara became a good friend. She was a fixture at our table. That's just how it was back then, women in the early days of TV.Q: And famed photographer Henri Cartier Bresson, who was 95 at the time, jumped you during an interview, too. Ambassador Holbrooke thought that amusing for a man his age.A: Yes! Richard loved the fact he pushed his walker aside and jumped me!Q: Nelson Mandela told you once that he didn't understand what all the hoopla was over President Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. That leaders should have a certain macho. Were your surprised?A: In answer to all those people who are so ready to judge, here's Nelson Mandela, probably the greatest man of our times, saying this is a human being, Bill Clinton. How can the knives be out like this over a human failure? Man, oh, man, it's ugly out there. Q: You say that Paris is always a new beginning for you, that you appreciate the French need for privacy, yet you take some friendly swipes at the French. What is it that amuses you most about them?A: Well, what doesn't? You know, their certainty, their attitude that it's a privilege to be French and the rest of us are not quite up to snuff. And I like the way they take their work seriously, be they waiters or pharmacists. There's a high degree of pride in what they do and in their city.It's the most romantic backdrop. I've felt comfort there, surrounded by beauty and the memories of my former lives there. Everything comes together for me in that city.Q: But don't you wish more Americans would care about how they looked, like the French do when they step out the door just to buy bread?A: Well, in New York they do. Obviously the obesity thing is huge here, if huge is the word. I support Michelle Obama and her efforts 100%.Q: You say your life now has less tension and excitement, yet I sense you're OK with that.A: Grief takes a lot of energy, so I don't have quite as much energy these days. But I had the energy to write a book and to pack up 25 years of belongings and move to a new place (a smaller apartment in Manhattan).I have fewer ghosts now. I'm very fortunate in having interesting work. And I'm fortunate to have my two children (Elizabeth and Chris). In terms of the kind of electricity that Richard brought into my life, no, that has subsided. But I cannot complain.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.
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