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He needed me

Whenever anyone—usually a reporter—asked me how I coped with aI’d learned that whatever I said would be misquoted, so I si the truth to a fe and so in need herself that for a uard down I said, “He needs me” That’s all Just those three words

Who would have thought that a second of unguarded honesty could cause so irl—she had certainly not attained the maturity of womanhood—parlayed my small sentence into international turmoil

I was right in thinking she herself was needy Oh, yes, very needy She needed a story, so she fabricated one Neveron which to base her fable

I ood at research She couldn’t have slept during the teeks between my remark and the publication of her story She consulted psychiatrists, self-help gurus, and clergy She interviewed hordes of rampant feminists Every famous woman who had ever hinted that she hated men was interviewed and quoted

In the end Jimmie and I were portrayed as one sick couple He was the do child at home And I was shown to be a cross between steel and an ever-flowing breast

When the article came out and caused a sensation, I wanted to hide from the world I wanted to retreat to the most remote of Jimmie’s twelve houses and never leave But Ji—which was the true secret of his success—and he hter, and worse, the pseudo-therapists who felt it was our “duty” to expose every private thought and feeling to the world, head-on

Jimmie just put his arhed in answer to all of their questions Whatever they asked, he had a joke for a reply

“Is it true, Mr Manville, that your wife is the power behind the throne?” The reporter asking this was s at me in a nasty way Jimmie was six foot two and built like the bull some people said he was, and I am five foot two and round I’ve never looked like the power behind anyone

“She makes all the decisions I’ his famous teeth But those of us who knew him saw the coldness in his eyes Jiement of what he considered his “I couldn’t have done it without her,” he said in that teasing way of his Few people knew hi