As she campaigns for president, one of the questions that a lot of voters are asking about Hillary Clinton is why she's stayed with Bill for all these years. Through all of the turmoil of the Lewinsky scandal and other rumored infidelities, why has their marriage endured?

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the divorce question seems to be dogging French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia.

The couple separated briefly in 2005, but the divorce rumors have been on the rise this week because Cecilia did not travel with her husband on a trip to Bulgaria this week. She was to have been honored by the Bulgarian government, so her absence was conspicuous, to say the least.

She skipped a lunch with President Bush in August — though there are those of us who might not blame her for that — and apparently she's only made three public appearances in an official capacity with her husband.

I remember during the height of Lewinskygate that folks in Europe thought a lot of Americans were overreacting. So it'll be interesting to watch how France reacts if the Sarkozy's marriage does break up.

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Here’s another story that shows things aren’t always so rosy in religious families. We’ve written a couple of times about the mis-matched ministers, Juanita Bynum and Thomas Weeks.

Well, here’s a story out of Alabama about a pastor whose wife walked out on him and their two kids six months ago. Actually, according to a report in the Mobile Press-Register, Beth Smith is still seeing her children on a regular basis, and sources say she is a good mother.

But in March, she hocked her wedding ring while attending a religious convention in Louisiana and bought a bus ticket to New York without telling her family anything. To say the least, details like that make her sound unstable. She was living in a women’s shelter in New York when authorities finally located her in July and brought her back to Alabama.

Her husband, Rev. Jason Lee Smith, has filed for divorce and it seeking custody of the kids, who are 10 and 7. Beth Smith’s attorney said there was conflict in the marriage and that the couple had grown apart. And he talked about the toll that keeping up appearances can take when you’re married to a religious leader. Indeed, if you start to question the life you’re living, that’s a difficult place to be. But walking out on your family? She’s going to have a tough time explaining that away.

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Here's a divorce story from the international press, but I have no doubt it's true everywhere.

The story comes out of Madrid, and I saw it on the website of Pakistan's Daily Times. The gist of it is that a lot of professional athletes get divorced and abuse drugs during the first year after their playing days are over.

It doesn't take much thinking to figure it out. You spend all those years being cheered, making millions, having something all-encompassing around which your life revolves. And then it's all gone.

I'm not sure what happens abroad, but here in the U.S., a lot of former pro athletes and coaches end up taking jobs as sports analysts on TV. For some, it turns into a long-term second career, and I think a big part of the reason they do it is that it keeps them connected to the game. And if that keeps their marriages from falling apart, then it's a good thing.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the National Football League's poor record of taking care of its former players, many of whom suffer tremendous physical problems after retiring. But you have to wonder whether any of the pro leagues are seeing to the mental health of their former players. With all of the spouses and families that could be impacted when athletes have trouble adjusting to retirement, it seems like something the leagues should be doing.

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We know you’ve all been waiting for the latest in the saga of Juanita Bynum and Thomas Weeks, the dueling evangelical ministers.

Bynum had filed for divorce from Weeks after he allegedly assaulted her in August, and she also has a restraining order against him. But there’s apparently nothing restraining her from turning her divorce into a career-boosting opportunity.

Bynum, who is a singer and televangelist, has been on the front page of the New York Times and made radio and TV appearances, including one on Good Morning America. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says she has declared herself the face of domestic violence. Now, there can never be an over-abundance of discussion on that important topic. But with any public figure, especially one who makes his or her living on TV, you have to question the motives when they go public with their personal stories.

But it’s tough to question a domestic abuse survivor. For now, let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. If he beat her and she wants to talk about it to keep it from happening to other women, that’s a good thing. I think we’ll be able to tell if she’s just using it to forward her career.

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The writer who brought us “The Starter Wife” is developing a comedy-drama series about divorce for NBC.

Novelist Gigi Levangie Grazer’s “The Starter Wife” was adapted into a mini-series that aired on USA Network earlier this year. A Reuters report on Levangie Grazer’s deal with NBC didn’t mention when the new show would air or what its title would be. But based on its premise, the show sounds like it’ll be worth watching.

It’ll tell the story of a 30-something couple with two kids that’s getting a divorce, but still living together. Levangie Grazer knows the subject well. She’s in the process of her second divorce, splitting up with Hollywood producer Brian Grazer. The show will deal with a lot of the issues we write about here at FWW, namely how to divorce in peace and how to co-parent through a divorce. As Levangie Grazer said in the Reuters story, acrimonious divorces are "so 1990s."

I’m interested to give this one a shot. Here’s hoping NBC doesn’t give it a quick hook and pull the plug on it before it finds its footing. A show like this could give a lot of people a little sense of comfort. Sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of a reminder that there are lots of people out there dealing with the same things you are.

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Which way is the wind blowing on the latest celebrity split? Staying on top of the gossip can be a challenge. Different day, different spin. Situations and conditions change on a dime. Bearing that in mind, here's the latest on the saga of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa:

Only last Friday, we mentioned that Kobe was headed for divorce. Well, now celebrity gossip clearinghouse TMZ got some footage of Mr. and Mrs. Bryant out on the town in Los Angeles last night. Kobe was behind the wheel of a white Bentley with his wife Vanessa alongside. Looks like this little public appearance was staged with the intent of silencing all the rumors of the couple's supposed divorce.

It can't be easy being Mrs. Bryant, what with being married to a confessed adulterer who probably has groupies waiting for him in every city that has a pro basketball team. But you have to wonder which one of them decided to put on this little show, him or her? Or was it the publicist?

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It’s probably never a good idea to trust anything that comes from the National Enquirer, but apparently the king of all tabloids reported that pro wrestler Chris Benoit may have snapped after his wife Nancy asked him for a divorce. Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son Daniel were found dead in the family’s home last month. Investigators believe that Chris killed Nancy and Daniel and then took his own life.

The Enquirer, citing unnamed sources, said that Nancy Benoit had asked Chris to cut back his schedule, which required him to be on the road performing for World Wrestling Entertainment as many as 300 nights a year. Daniel was having health problems and Nancy wanted Chris to be at home more.

There were, no doubt, many issues that led to this horrific incident. It will be unfortunate if this divorce story starts to gain traction, because the reality is we’ll probably never know what happened for sure in this case.

There are likely many factors that played a role in this tragedy including steroids and pro wrestling’s demanding schedule. And it would be hard to believe that Benoit wasn't suffering from some type of mental illness. Mentally stable people don’t murder their spouse and child.

With all of these other things possibly in play, it would be troubling if it all got blamed on Nancy asking for a divorce. What do you think?

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About two years ago, NBC’s “Today” show did a live broadcast from Shanghai and spent a considerable amount of time getting across the point that China has become very Westernized. China has already taken its place alongside the U.S. as an economic superpower. And now, it seems, it’s taking an American attitude on divorce as well.

A China Daily story documents a rising divorce rate among couples in Shanghai age 30 and younger. In the first three months of this year, the number of divorces involving Shanghai couples in that age range rose 10 percent over the same period in 2006. A divorce expert quoted in the story describes why younger couples are more inclined to split up: “They are more self-centered and overly protected compared to previous generations,” the expert said.

Anyone think that sounds familiar?

That quote could easily describe young American couples too. The fact that it’s coming from China is further proof that our two countries are more similar than we realize.

Self-centered, overly protected generations, regardless of what country they’re from, want the quick fix. They jump both into and out of marriage because they’re used to getting what they want on demand. They want it ALL. In the digital age of iTunes and TiVo, it’s not hard to understand how such an attitude has evolved.

It’s likely that the 10 percent increase in Shanghai is only scratching the surface of what will happen in China in coming years.

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Word started circulating last week that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting divorced after a 20-year marriage. A piece in Saturday's Los Angeles Times speculates that most voters in the post-Bill Clinton era aren't too concerned with what happens in a politician's personal life.

Of course the talking heads in our 24/7 cable news universe will have a field day with a story like this.

The first thing that strikes me is that journalists ought to exercise discretion when they report a story like this one. The unfortunate reality is that most of the time when there's a high-profile divorce, we end up with one pundit after another over-analyzing and dissecting the story.

While the cable news shows pick the story to pieces, voters shouldn't ignore the impact a divorce can have on an elected official altogether. You know how difficult it is to concentrate and make important decisions when your marriage is falling apart, so imagine trying to do that and run a city at the same time.

Either one, the divorce or the mayor's job, would be enough to overwhelm many of us. What must it be like to manage both? I almost wish Mayor Villaraigosa would have the good sense to take a leave of absence until he puts his personal life in order. Most of us don't have the luxury of doing that but he might not either. In any case, his divorce is sure to become a distraction from city issues.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-mayor16jun16,1,1536401.story?coll=la-news-politics-california