On Monday, former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R), 74, resigned from his office after being charged with misusing funds, threatening his staff, and other wrongdoings — all to hide evidence by his wife of his extramarital affair with a staffer who was 30 years his junior.
And Bentley’s wife Dianne, who was instrumental to the governor’s undoing, is being paid quite a bit of attention this week for her impressive evidence-gathering skills. Extramarital affairs among elected officials may not be rare, but scorned spouses engineering the downfall of their former partners are.
Dianne Bentley reportedly began to suspect her husband was having an affair at a Washington, D.C. dinner in February 2014 when she caught her husband texting Mason, “I can’t take my eyes off of you.” After this incident, Dianne noticed that her husband and Mason were texting at suspicious hours.
Since the 2014 dinner, Dianne began keeping evidence of the affair, which wasn’t too difficult since her husband’s iPhone was synced with an iPad he had gifted Dianne with. Dianne kept photos of their texts, which constantly featured heart-eyed smiley emojis and such lines as “I’m so in love with you,” “I’m thinking of you now,” “sweetheart,” “sweet baby,” and even “So sweet. / So loving. / So soft. / So gentle. / So kind. / So supportive of me.”
From Slate:
Dianne also managed to pull off some top-quality spy moves in her private inquiry into her husband’s dishonor. She once left a running audio recorder in her purse, then left her purse in a room with Robert and told him she was going out for a walk. Sure enough, once she left, he started talking on the phone about putting his hands on Mason’s breasts and loving her “so much” it worried him. Robert’s attempts to get rid of Dianne’s recordings led him to threaten staff members, misuse funds, and commit other such transgressions that led to his impeachment. Oops!
Bless Dianne Bentley, who undid her cheating governor husband with his exceedingly boring sexts: https://t.co/3ZfBChw1F6 pic.twitter.com/DdAwaRFB9p
— Slate (@Slate) April 14, 2017
Impeachment report: former Dianne Bentley staffer Heather Hannah had home, vehicle vandalized after ethics commission testimony #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/tHnpeMAQyb
— Lee Hedgepeth (@lee_hedgepeth) April 7, 2017
Dianne went so far as to keep recording devices in her purse, leave her purse at home, and record audio of her husband on the phone with Mason, ranting about his desire for her, and that he loved her “so much” it worried him.
Twitter has since wasted no time in declaring Dianne its Queen:
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned … with receipts 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾. Thanks for the break down on Dianne Bentley and her badassery @hellbentpod
— 🙆🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️🙎🏾♀️ (@monique_elise) April 14, 2017
https://twitter.com/NatalieBDevlin/status/851553766923005952
Former First Lady of Alabama Dianne Bentley is my hero pic.twitter.com/zuMlKU15PM
— crismontyy (@crismontyy) April 13, 2017
Thank you, Dianne Bentley, for showing women all over the world how to #Empower other women. #nastywomenproject pic.twitter.com/y8djBcspFV
— NWP (@NastyWP) April 13, 2017
Dianne Bentley, savage https://t.co/B581YXWscZ
— Brad J. Latta (@BradJLatta) April 7, 2017
report: Bentley in 2nd confrontation w/ dianne staffer "watch yourself, you don't know what you're getting into:" people "bow to his throne"
— Jonathan Hardison (@FOX6Hardison) April 7, 2017