Oral History Interview with Laura Miller, October 30, 2014 Page: 23 of 25
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he's fine. I liked him. I felt bad for him. The woman was, you know, a very intense
person. The daughter was little, you know, in the middle of the fight. So, I write this rock
and roll, War of the Roses column. Very memorable because it had the balloons.
Chase: Oh, yeah.
Laura: And, um...and, in the court documents, she had claimed that he gave her herpes. I
threw that in. Anyway, the story goes out. She goes crazy 'cuz its not what she thought it
would be.
Chase: You didn't crucify him, so she's angry.
Laura: Right. I said, they're both using this kid as a punching bag. Typical divorce.
Awful...everyone needs to learn to chill out.
Chase: Maybe that's why you went for it. You had that unique perspective of, you
know...
Laura: Yeah, yeah, maybe that's why I went for it, yeah. So, anyways...uh, so this is
1990. And she started...she threatened to sue. She did sue. She sued for libel. And the
case hinged on a number of things, most particularly the fact that she claimed she
absolutely did not have herpes, and never said so. So I went back through all my notes. I
didn't tape back then. I just took notes.
Chase: Yeah.
Laura: I write notes, and I couldn't find anything in the notes about the herpes.
Chase: Oh, no.
Laura: Yeah. So the lawyer handling the case for the magazine.. .1 said, I don't make
mistakes. As a journalist, I didn't make a lot of mistakes. I was very, very, very thorough.
So, I said this came from the court documents. I know it. So, the lawyer sent an intern
down to the courthouse to go through every single page, and it was in there. Case was
dismissed. It was all fine.
Chase: Cool.
Laura: She kept calling, and calling, and calling. Ten years ago, I get a letter from the
daughter at my house.
Chase: Oh?
Laura: And she says, 'It's me. I just want you to know that I turned out okay. That
article.. .just haunts our family. Every day. It was horrible what you wrote about my
parents. And about me. And I just wanted you to know, for the sense of my own well-
being, that I did not turn out weird. I wanted you to know. Fast-forward to a month ago:
The phone rings. It's D Magazine. 'Laura, that woman keeps calling.'
Chase: She's still calling?
Laura: This was twenty-five years ago.
Chase: You gave her a new obsession, is what you did.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Chase: She is probably the only person still reading this article.
Laura: I know. Anyhow, but you...but think about it. No one knows her. She wasn't
famous. It wasn't like it was some big politician. Then, it would have been easy to do.
This is...so, even though this family came to me and asked me to write the story, think
about the result because I needed to get another column out.
Chase: Some flash-in-the-pan, fifteen minute-
Laura: Yeah. So, that's what I'm talking about. There has to be...there ought to be (and
there can't be with a young ambitious journalist), but if there can be a sense of 'why am I
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Carter, Chase & Miller, Laura. Oral History Interview with Laura Miller, October 30, 2014, text, October 30, 2014; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586995/m1/23/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism.