At a press conference Thursday morning, Courtney Faison, daughter of Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Bill Faison, defended her dad’s conduct in a messy divorce case from 2008.
As the News & Observer reported earlier this week, divorce papers revealed a soap-opera worthy saga of conflict between Faison and his ex-wife, Linda. But at the presser this morning, Courtney clearly was on her dad’s side:
He [Faison] made a very difficult decision, for our family for the safety and well being of my brothers and sisters, to leave his marriage. And he did that knowing that there may be some retaliation over that, and there has been. But I admire and respect him for doing that. He put us first, and he always puts his kids first … we admire him and respect him a great deal, and hope that everyone else does for having done that. He stands up for us, and we stand up for him as well.
Asked about one of the accusations in the divorce papers — that Linda Faison purposefully fed her husband food that contained gluten, even though she knew he had celiac disease — Courtney said that it did indeed happen. “It was kind of a scary situation,” because the food would make Faison sick, she said.
