Oliver North, once a central figure in one of the most notorious political scandals of the 1980s, has married Fawn Hall, his former secretary who played a key role in the Iran-Contra affair.
The couple wed on August 27 in Virginia, according to a marriage certificate obtained by CNN, marking a surprising twist nearly four decades after the scandal first made international headlines.
When reached by CNN, North refused to comment on the marriage, providing a famous movie quote instead: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” referencing Clark Gable’s character in Gone with the Wind. The taciturn reply is a far cry from the seriousness of their collective history.
North, who was a retired lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, was part of the National Security Council at the time of the Iran-Contra affair in the mid-1980s. The scandal involved the secret sale of weapons to Iran in violation of an arms embargo, and the proceeds were being used to finance Contra rebels fighting Nicaragua’s socialist government. This operation defied U.S. law as well as President Ronald Reagan’s promises that the United States would not deal with terrorists.
Fawn Hall, who was then the secretary to North, confessed under congressional testimony that she had been assisting in covering up the operation by destroying documents. She even snuck papers out of the White House complex, hiding them in shoes and clothing, in one sensational account. She and North fed so many documents into a shredder that it clogged. Hall’s efforts, designed to protect her boss and the administration, solidified her position in one of Washington’s most notorious cover-ups.
Both North and Hall had to endure severe penalties. In 1989, North was convicted of three felonies on charges of obstruction of justice and destruction of documents. Those convictions were vacated on appeal due to immunity problems pertaining to his congressional testimony. Hall, for her part, was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony regarding the document destruction.
The aftermath of Iran-Contra severely rocked the Reagan administration, generating controversy regarding executive power, foreign policy secrecy, and how far officials would go in the pursuit of Cold War goals. North eventually tried to reposition himself politically, losing a bid for a U.S. Virginia Senate seat in 1994. He subsequently established himself as a conservative commentator and author and, in 2018, served briefly as president of the National Rifle Association before resigning due to internal squabbles. His first wife, Betsy, died in 2023.
Hall, on the other hand, disappeared from public sight after the scandal. She married Danny Sugerman, long-time manager of The Doors, in 1993 and stayed with him until his death in 2005. Since then, she has stayed out of the limelight.
News of her wedding to North broke in a piece by reporter Michael Isikoff on SpyTalk, a Substack newsletter dedicated to national security. To many, the marriage is a surprise reunion of two people destined to be bound together by a political maelstrom that changed the trajectory of American history.
Almost four decades since shredding secrets in the White House sub-basement, Oliver North and Fawn Hall have reunited not only as co-defendants in scandal but now as life partners.
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