Jack Ryan Slams Media for Sex Life Focus
July 2, 2004 -- Jack Ryan, the Illinois Republican who abandoned his Senate bid amid a furor over sex club allegations, says the media's focus on candidates' personal sex lives serves no public purpose and is harmful to democracy.
Watch John Stossel's full interview with Jack Ryan tonight on 20/20 at 10 p.m.
The investment banker-turned-teacher dropped out of the race after a judge unsealed custody records in which his ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan, claimed that he took her to sex clubs and asked her to have sex with him in front of other couples. Ryan disputed the allegations, saying he and his wife went to one "avant-garde" club in Paris and left because they felt uncomfortable.
Ryan's critics said such sexual exhibitionism clashed with the family values message touted by the Republican Party.
Ryan, 44, defended himself, telling ABC News' John Stossel, "I think we need more people going to Washington, D.C., who want to engage in marital relations with their wives. I think that's a good thing for this country, not a bad thing."
The records from the couple's 1999 divorce proceedings were opened after The Chicago Tribune and ABC affiliate WLS-TV filed suit, invoking the public's right to know. In the records, Jeri Ryan — who played the character Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager and later had a role on Boston Public — said her ex-husband took her to sex clubs in Paris, New York and New Orleans and tried to get her to perform sex acts with him while others watched.
Ryan said he and his campaign advisers thought the controversy would die down quickly. "I was told by almost everyone I spoke to this is a two-day story, this is not a crusher for a campaign," he said. "The biggest reaction I got was, 'Is that all there is?' "
But Ryan's campaign collapsed a mere four days after the story broke.
"It turned out that the media in my view was not going to let me talk about the failure of the Great Society, and how do we improve life on the South Side of Chicago," Ryan said. "They wanted to talk about what's now public, these divorce records. And they were not going to let go."
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