Ann Romney’s Childhood Nanny Confirms Ann Never Worked — And I Don’t Care

Politics

Ann Romney’s Childhood Nanny Confirms Ann Never Worked — And I Don’t Care

4:45 pm, April 13th | by Laura Donovan

By now, you’ve read all about political consultant Hilary Rosen’s comment that Ann Romney “has actually never worked a day in her life,” but you probably haven’t heard Ann’s childhood nanny weigh in on the matter yet. If you’ve been anxiously waiting for this mystery woman’s take on Ann’s childhood (*yawn*), Current TV has you covered.

During a phone call with the “Stephanie Miller Show,” Juanita, a woman who claims to have taken care of Ann’s “wealthy” family when the prospective first lady was a little girl, said it’s true that the Michigan native has never worked.

“I took care of Ann, I got to take care of Ann and her two brothers, Jim, and her other brother’s name was Rodney, he was named after his dad…When she met Mitt, I was taking care of her,” Juanita said of Ann, who started dating Mitt Romney in high school. “When the lady said that Ann never worked a day in her life, she didn’t, because I took care of Ann. Ann came from a family who was really privileged. She had a horse and I had to take them to Bloomfield Hills, Cranbook all the time, and she was a child of privilege and I cleaned for them, cooked for them, and just took care of her the whole bit, so what the lady said about her, she never worked a day in her life is true.”

This will undoubtedly fuel the fire for dissenters, but I couldn’t care less about what Ann was like as a child. More than likely, Juanita had limited interactions with Ann after the potential FLOTUS tied the knot with Mitt in 1969, which was 43 years ago, so I doubt she has serious insight into what Ann is like now (for the record, BuzzFeed did some digging and found that the only woman of the right age in the Pontiac area named Juanita has a phone number that is no longer in service, so even though the Romney campaign has yet to respond to a request for comment, it’s possible that this lady is a fraud). Her financially comfortable formative years are telling and surely helped shape the adult she is today, but even if Ann hasn’t technically done any work outside the house in her life, she’s not less of a person for it, and nothing gives us the right to put her decisions on a dart board.

At the same time, it’s been disheartening to watch this scandal, which in some ways feels even more blown out of proportion than the unforgettable Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke debacle, bring out the worst in both Republicans and Democrats. Rosen’s comment insinuated that Ann is the “wrong” kind of woman as well as a traitor, and some folks jumped at the opportunity to identify Rosen as a “lesbian Dem” and berated her for only being able to adopt children, as one religious group sneered.

Conservative pundit Matt Lewis urged readers to divorce themselves from the victim mentality and stop feigning so much outrage. And while the anger was real for some of us, Lewis was correct in telling everyone to chill out and drop the point system. Though many would say otherwise, this isn’t a game, and no matter your take on the controversy, you’re hurting yourself and your party by abiding by the “whose side are you on?” mentality and continuing to roast Rosen or Ann.

TAGS: Ann Romney | Hilary Rosen | hilary rosen controversy | mitt romney