{"id":3433,"date":"2019-01-20T17:48:57","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T00:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/nosacredcows\/?p=3433"},"modified":"2019-01-20T17:48:57","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T00:48:57","slug":"richard-spencers-wife-started-a-gofundme-to-help-divorce-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nosacredcows\/2019\/01\/richard-spencers-wife-started-a-gofundme-to-help-divorce-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Spencer’s Wife Started a GoFundMe to Help Divorce Him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Richard Spencer<\/strong>\u2019s wife, who recently accused the infamous Alt-Right leader of abuse, started a GoFundMe so that people could help her afford to divorce him.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo was provided by Kouprianova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have written about Spencer in the past, like last year when I reported that he has some DNA that can be traced to Western and East Asia, North Africa, and even Sub-Saharan Africa<\/a>. In a recent HuffPost article<\/a>, his wife\u00a0Nina Kouprianova accused him of being consistently abusive.<\/p>\n

Now, after eight years as his business partner and confidante, ally and enemy, Kouprianova is divorcing Spencer<\/strong>, America\u2019s second-most notorious racist. The fallout is a bitter tangle of fear and rage, with dueling allegations of abuse and harassment<\/strong>. In the affidavit filed in their divorce proceedings is a copy of an email Kouprianova sent to Spencer on Jan. 4, 2011. She\u2019s replying to an email he sent. \u201cDid you arrive back\u2026\u201d the subject line reads. And in the body: \u201c\u2026safely?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d she replied, \u201capart from seeing the bruises on my wrists and knees from yesterday\u2019s adventure down your staircase that you sent me on<\/strong>, the trip back went without major incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you working tonight?<\/strong>\u201d he replied.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to show text messages between the couple, but it doesn\u2019t go into detail about the financial difficulties she says she\u2019s having divorcing him. I spoke with\u00a0Kouprianova, who told me in an email that she launched a fundraiser for the legal costs associated with the divorce.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bit awkward for me to ask for financial aid<\/strong>: I have worked since high school, through undergraduate and graduate degrees, and while raising small children, sometimes holding down more than one job while being a full-time student or a full-time parent<\/strong>,\u201d she told me via email. \u201cHowever, I have exhausted all other options. Litigation is expensive, especially in high-conflict scenarios<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On her fundraiser page, which can be found here<\/a>,\u00a0Kouprianova goes into even more detail:<\/p>\n

Please help me leave an abusive marriage for good by\u00a0finalizing my divorce<\/a>\u00a0 from well-known \u201cAlt Right leader\u201d Richard Spencer. My goal is to establish longterm safety and security for our two very young children and for myself<\/strong>. My legal fees incurred in these ongoing divorce proceedings are in the tens of thousands of dollars and counting<\/strong>. My financials means are modest and disappearing quickly. Furthermore, my residence and job are both at the mercy of a Spencer family member<\/strong>. Statements have been made about leaving me\u2014and the children\u2014homeless and jobless<\/strong>. Any help would be greatly appreciated!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I asked\u00a0Kouprianova about Spencer\u2019s evolving political beliefs and how they might have been related to the abuse she alleged, and she said it was a \u201cnuanced question<\/em>.\u201d She said he told her he was a \u201cLeftist\u201d in high school, and pointed to a voting record that included a Democrat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, looking at Richard Spencer\u2019s political development throughout his life, one can certainly detect a general trajectory toward the Right<\/strong>\u2026 As I\u2019ve previously said, when I met him in early 2009, he described himself as a Libertarian. And in 2019, we know what he calls himself now<\/strong>,\u201d she told me today. \u201cSecond, in my marriage, specifically, the escalation of abuse and the radicalization of politics were a definite parallel development<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She added that it\u2019s \u201cunclear\u201d how Spencer treated women prior to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as he told me, his longest relationship prior to me lasted less than 6 months<\/strong>, and I met him when he was about 30 years old. (This should have been a red flag<\/span>.) It is uncertain why his previous relationships would terminate so early in the romantic \u201choneymoon\u201d phase if it weren\u2019t for serious reasons<\/strong>. But I can only speculate as to what those reasons were.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For his part, Spencer told me on Twitter that his wife married him\u00a0after<\/em> he founded AlternativeRight.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s creating quite a narrative for herself<\/strong>. I was not a leftist in high school nor would I ever say something like that,\u201d he told me. \u201cI voted for Kerry in 2004 in a straight, anti-Bush, anti-war vote<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spencer, who categorically denies claims of abusing Kouprianova, further added that the \u201cnarrative Nina is promoting is self-serving and bizarre<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strange situation. There is evidence that\u00a0Kouprianova has promoted her own controversial views in the past<\/a>, but as Spencer notes, people often do change over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone obviously evolves, and she definitely evolved,\u201d Spencer told me. He said that while his beliefs haven\u2019t\u00a0fundamentally changed<\/em> since they married, his articulation of his beliefs were probably different.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe never expressed any moral or profound philosophical disagreement with my worldview<\/strong>. I would say that, over the course of our marriage, she did become less of a White Nationalist, if you want to use that term, or pro-European thinker, and became much more of a fervent Russian Nationalist<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In response to Spencer\u2019s statements,\u00a0Kouprianova said he founded his Alt-Right websites after they were living together and \u201cthe relationship was serious.\u201d He also seemed<\/em> to have supremacist intentions, she told me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time of its launch, Richard Spencer\u2019s explicitly communicated purpose was along the lines of one of his favorite books at that time, Libertarian Justin Raimondo\u2019s _Reclaiming the American Right_<\/strong>. In that regard, one of the focal points of that website was supposed to be a challenge to the neocon agenda of endless war, precisely as Richard indicates in the quotation you provided about his 2004 voting record<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She also said she didn\u2019t feel safe challenging Spencer\u2019s ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cChallenging Richard Spencer\u2019s world view was not safe to do in a household where \u201cincorrectly\u201d washing his favorite cast-iron pan would lead to hours of denigration<\/strong>. Furthermore, even my publicly available Court affidavit contains a transcript to e.g. sub-exhibit 30 (attached). In that particular recording, Richard Spencer was screaming at me because I did not pass his \u201cideological purity\u201d test. When the consequence of disagreeing with Richard ranged from the silent treatment, to screaming matches, to being kept awake at night, to outright physical violence, then over time I, as the target of such treatment, learned to keep my mouth shut.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is the transcript excerpt:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a major fallout from an infamous power couple, so there is bound to be some controversy and drama here. But how it all will shake out remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s bound to be controversy when an infamous couple splits, but how it all will shake out remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2918,"featured_media":3451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3,12],"tags":[6,3694,3685,73,3697,716,79,8,3688,3691,4,3021,7,135,385,568],"class_list":["post-3433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-interviews","category-news","tag-alt-right","tag-alternative-right","tag-divorce","tag-hate","tag-hitler","tag-husband","tag-marriage","tag-nazi","tag-nina","tag-nina-kouprianova","tag-richard-spencer","tag-russian","tag-white-nationalist","tag-white-supremacist","tag-white-supremacy","tag-wife"],"yoast_head":"\nRichard Spencer's Wife Started a GoFundMe to Help Divorce Him<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There's bound to be controversy when an infamous couple splits, but how it all will shake out remains to be seen.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nosacredcows\/2019\/01\/richard-spencers-wife-started-a-gofundme-to-help-divorce-him\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Richard Spencer's Wife Started a GoFundMe to Help Divorce Him\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There's bound to be controversy when an infamous couple splits, but how it all will shake out remains to be seen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/nosacredcows\/2019\/01\/richard-spencers-wife-started-a-gofundme-to-help-divorce-him\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"No Sacred Cows\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-21T00:48:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/780\/2019\/01\/RICHARDNINAMARRIED.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"431\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David G. 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