NAME: Teresa Heinz Kerry

AGE: 66

NATIONALITY: American

CLAIM TO FAME: The lady who speaks too much

HER outspokenness is landing her into trouble. And that’s bad news for her husband who is vying for the highest post in America. Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, is becoming a burden as Election Day draws near. Recently she made a highly inappropriate remark about Laura Bush and had to later apologize for it. After saying in an interview that she didn’t know if the president’s wife has ever had “a real job”, Heinz Kerry realized her blunder and was forced to apologize to the First Lady who has had a 10-year stint as a schoolteacher and librarian.

John Kerry could do nothing but defend his blunt wife by saying that she simply made a mistake when she made the remark and that he loves her outspokenness. For her part, Laura Bush played it cool by reportedly saying that Teresa Heinz Kerry didn’t need to apologize for her remark.

But this is not the first time that the outspoken, wealthy and strong-willed Heinz Kerry has had her bluntness land her in trouble. She made no apologies for being hostile to a journalist she considered intimidating to her husband. Defending herself, she later said: “My right to speak my mind, to have a voice, to be what some have called ‘opinionated’ is a right I deeply and profoundly cherish. And my only hope is that one day soon, women...instead of being labelled opinionated will be called smart and well informed, just like men.”

But before such a time, there is Tuesday’s Election Day and recent opinion polls show that after her remarks about the first lady, Heinz Kerry’s favourable rating drop to 38 per cent as her unfavourable rating skyrocketed. Laura Bush’s ratings in the same poll, by contrast, were 73 per cent favourable.

As a prominent and successful woman, Teresa is the kind of political wife who draws heightened scrutiny during a political campaign. And she is independently wealthy, to the tune of $550 million, from her first marriage to the late senator John Heinz, heir to the ketchup fortune. She is powerful in her own right as head of the Howard Heinz Endowment and Heinz Family Philanthropies, a charity with a billion-dollar endowment that gives away millions each year to environmental, educational and health causes. She has received numerous awards and 10 honorary degrees for her work with the environment, health and education.

Of Portuguese parentage, Teresa was born and raised in Africa and educated in Switzerland. Fluent in five languages, she moved to the US in the ‘60s to work as a translator for the UN. She married John Heinz in 1966. A Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Heinz died in a plane crash in 1991. She got to know Senator John Kerry when they attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. They married in 1995.

So far, the US has never had a wealthy spouse overshadow its president. Should Kerry win, his wife will be the second First Lady born outside the US and the oldest so far. Let’s see if America is ready for a First Lady who knows her mind and speaks it. — Ambreen Arshad