Personal Life
Gibbons has been married twice and has three children. He married Dawn Gibbons in 1985; they have a son, born in 1987. Dawn Gibbons did not move to Washington to live with her husband while he served in Congress, saying she preferred to raise their son in Nevada. She herself was elected to the Nevada State Assembly in 1998, two years after Jim Gibbons was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. On May 2, 2008, Gibbons filed for divorce, citing grounds of incompatibility stemming from an undisclosed event in Reno, Nevada, and requesting the court to determine whether Gibbons or his wife would live at the governor's mansion.
In April 2009, Gibbons was living in Reno; his wife, Dawn, remained in the governor's mansion in Carson City. An 1866 state law requires that governor must "keep his office and reside at the seat of government". A spokesman for Gibbons described the move by the governor back to the couple's Reno home, which they had owned since 1989, as a temporary situation and said there was no violation of the law. By April 2009, Dawn was living in an apartment near the mansion rather than in it.
Divorce proceedings were stayed upon agreement of living separately pending the suit. Dawn accused Jim of "infatuation and involvement with the wife of a Reno doctor”, but he stated the woman is just a friend. In March–April 2007, he sent 860 text messages in one month to the woman. He later reimbursed the state $130 for the cost of the messages. In June 2008, he was seen with former Playboy model Leslie Durant at the Reno Rodeo. Durant is particularly prominent not solely because of her nude Playboy appearance, because she was once married to Pete Sferrazza, formerly mayor of Reno.
On April 6, 2009, a judge in Washoe County Family Court ordered the records of the divorce proceedings unsealed. Dawn's papers alleged that Jim was unfaithful with Durant, and with the woman who received the 860 messages, and "has had similar relationships with many other women during the marriage". She also referenced her humiliation at standing beside him when her husband attempted to defend himself from allegations of attempted sexual assault shortly before the 2006 election. See "sexual assault allegation" below.
Jim Gibbons' divorce filings stated that he wanted his wife out of the Governor's Mansion because she was aggressive: "It was once said in another context that being in close quarters with such a volatile person was like being locked in a phone booth with an enraged ferret".
In January 2010, the couple negotiated and completed an out-of-court divorce agreement. The divorce was finalized on July 21, 2010.
On September 21, 2010, Gibbons fell off and was kicked by a horse, resulting in a broken pelvis. Surgeons implanted temporary ten-inch and eight-inch (203 mm) bolts to assist in the healing, and Gibbons was forced to conduct official business via telephone conferences in a rehabilitation center in Reno.
Read more about this topic: Jim Gibbons (U.S. Politician)
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