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In reply to the discussion: Dick Cavett - I knew I loved that guy [View all]Pantagruelsmember
(106 posts)"The Mitchells separated in 1973. After the Watergate break-in, Martha Mitchell began contacting reporters when her husband's role in the scandal became known, which earned her the title, "the Mouth of the South."[citation needed] Nixon was later to tell interviewer David Frost in 1977 that Martha was a distraction to John Mitchell, such that no one was minding the store, and "If it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell, there'd have been no Watergate."
At one point, she insisted she had been held against her will in a California hotel room and sedated[1] to prevent her from making controversial phone calls to the news media. Because of her allegations, she was discredited and even abandoned by most of her family, except her son Jay. Nixon aides even leaked to the press that she had a drinking problem.[citation needed] The "Martha Mitchell effect", in which a psychiatrist mistakenly or purposely identifies a patient's extraordinary claims as delusions, despite their veracity, was later named after her."