Katie Hill says she was in despair after resigning from the House of Representatives amid a furor over a leaked photo of her naked and brushing the hair of a female aide with whom she was having an affair.
Hill, 32, stepped down in October after admitting a “throuple” relationship between her, her husband, and the aide. She was also accused of an affair with a male aide, which she has denied.
The freshman congresswoman spent less than a year in Congress before quitting after the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation. “My life was just like everyone’s worst nightmare,” Hill wrote in an article in the New York Times. “Millions of people had seen pictures of me naked. Hundreds of journalists, commentators, politicians and public figures had written or spoken about my ‘downfall,’ the ‘choices’ I made, the lessons young people should take from what happened to me, the impact it would have on politics moving forward, the responsibility I bore for all of it.”
Hill has said that her ex-husband was responsible for spreading the rumors about her relationship with a male campaign employee and that the nude photos of her were taken without her knowledge or permission. “After the images came out, as I lay curled up in my bed with my mind in the darkest places it’s ever been, countless texts and voice mails came from donors, friends, volunteers and voters sending love,” she said. “But they couldn’t drown out the horrible messages and calls from people who found my phone number on the internet.”
In the aftermath of her resignation, Hill described contemplating suicide. “I just wanted it all to be over,” she said. “I got up and looked for the box cutter. I couldn’t find it. A part of my brain was saying: ‘Stop it, this is stupid. You’re not going to do it.'” Hill then described how thinking of supporters and family changed her mind: “I thought about the people I had already let down so much. What would this do to my parents? To my brother and sister?”
Declining to speculate about future endeavors, Hill said that she anticipates more hardship. “I don’t know exactly what’s ahead for me, and I know there’s a lot more pain ahead,” she wrote. “But I’m in the fight, and I’m glad it’s not all over after all.”
