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In 1987, Donna Rice rose to notoriety in the scandal with presidential hopeful Gary Hart. Today she's back in the spotlight with a new last name—and startling news that impacts you, your family, and community.
Little did marketing representative and part-time actress Donna Rice know when she accompanied former Colorado senator Gary Hart on a pleasure cruise to the Bahamas nine years ago that he was married, that he was planning to run for president, or that she would be thrust into the limelight as a sex symbol. After the media broke the story about their brief liaison, Rice's name and old modeling swimsuit photos were splashed across newspapers and magazine covers worldwide against her will. The scandal forced Hart to drop his bid for the 1988 presidential nomination. During the years of unrelenting hounding by the press, Donna chose to retreat from public view.
That is, until two years ago, when Donna broke her self-imposed silence and emerged as a leading national spokesperson for the fight against illegal pornography, specifically protecting children. Today, thirty-eight-year-old Donna, who's been married to technology executive Jack Hughes for two-and-a-half years, is Director of Marketing and Communications at "Enough Is Enough!", a nonprofit organization dedicated to stopping illegal pornography, assisting victims, and making the Internet safe for children.
It's clear Donna's passionate about her work, her family, and the Lord. Her life today, though busy and multifaceted, particularly because she's working on a book (publisher not yet chosen), is balanced. Her hard-won inner strength has come, she admits, "only as a result of drawing closer to God and following his will for my life, rather than my own."
During her growing-up years as the daughter of William Rice, a federal highway engineer, and Miriam, a secretary, Donna moved from Florida to Atlanta to South Carolina, where she spent her sixth grade through college years. Her mother took her and her sister to Sunday school and church, and Donna chose to be baptized in fifth grade. But it wasn't until ninth grade, when a friend took her to a Cliff Barrows crusade, that Donna knew she wanted more than "church"--she wanted a personal relationship with Jesus. After that decision, her life in high school revolved around singing in choir, going to youth group, taking mission trips, and bringing friends to church so they, too, could experience the love of Christ.
What happened to plunge this "good Christian girl" into a national scandal? In this interview, Donna Rice Hughes talks candidly about the subtle compromises she began to make as a Christian, the things she's learned over the past nine years, and the surprising work God's given her now.
TCW: Donna, what made you susceptible to the scandal?
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