The Essex girl with passions for the White House

IT'S likely that you have never heard of Elizabeth Kucinich, a 6ft willowy redhead with long legs and a film star profile, yet this Essex girl has been causing as much of a stir in America as President Nicolas Sarkowzy and model Carla Bruni did in France. In fact there are some similarities.

Elizabeth Kucinich, nee Harper, is a leggy stunner who towers over her husband, left-wing presidential campaigner and anti-war battler Dennis Kucinich. She is just 30 years of age and he is a pensioner at 60.

Nicolas Sarkowzy is a short, attractive Frenchman while Bruni, an ex-model and former lover of Mick Jagger, stands head and shoulders above him. She is also 17 years younger than him.

And while Sarkowzy meeting a one time model and film star is perhaps credible, a presidential candidate meeting a girl who left her Essex home at 18 to work with Mother Teresa's charity in India, would seem even less likely.

Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Harper in South Ockendon, Havering, and went to Coopers' Company and Coborn School, but she is not your usual picture of someone who could one day finish up as the First Lady in the White House.

She has a pierced tongue and mingled with the likes of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama backstage at the Democratic presidential debates while helping her husband's political career. She has been compared to Arwen Evenstar, the Lord of the Rings character, because she towers over her diminutive husband.

“Who cares?”she said in an interview. “I like wearing high heels so I'm used to being taller than most men I stand next to.”

Nor is she bothered by their 31-year age difference. “I have never noticed it at all,”she said. “Dennis is a very mature but young-at-heart gentleman and we complement each other.”

Kucinich met her husband-to-be in 2005 when she visited his office in the House of Representatives with her boss as a volunteer worker for the American Monetary Institute, an offbeat group dedicated to reforming the “unjust monetary system”.

It was love at first sight for both of them. Immediately after their meeting, Dennis Kucinich phoned a friend and said: “I've met my future wife.” He was mesmerised to receive a business e-mail from Harper with her usual signature line from Kama Sutra, one of her favourite films:

“Knowing love, I shall allow all things to come and go, to be as supple as the wind and take everything that comes with great courage. My heart is as open as the sky.”

He proposed at their second meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and they married three months later. The Hollywood actress Shirley MacLaine attended their wedding. “I knew at once I really wanted to marry this man,”Elizabeth said. “When you know it, why hang around?”

It was Dennis' third marriage, but by the time he met Elizabeth he had been single for more than 20 years. If Dennis were elected, they would make a great team, Elizabeth said. “Can you imagine what it would be like to have real love in the White House and a true union between the masculine and the feminine?”

There were clues in her childhood that they were destined for each other, Elizabeth believes. She lived with her mother, a divorcee, in a farm labourer's dilapidated house in Havering that was lovingly restored over the years. The address was 4, Dennis Cottages, Dennis Lane.. Her mother runs a healing and therapy centre and passed on her love of new age philosophy to her daughter. Known at school in Essex as “the Jolly Green Giant” because of her height, she studied religion and theology at Kent University and spent time in India and Tanzania, where she worked for Voluntary Service Overseas.

It was in India that she encountered somebody with a tongue stud and later had her own implanted - a bar with two delicate balls on either side. On her MySpace website she lists one of her favourite bands as Coldplay and says her heroes are “my beautiful husband and anyone else who embraces peace”.

She describes Dennis as a “very philosophical, deep thinking person” rather than a new age type, but he is a vegan, unlike her she still cannot resist occasional dairy products.

At Kent University she unexpectedly signed up for a Masters degree in conflict resolution after meeting the course lecturer in a pub. She knew she had chosen the right subject when her final exam took place on September 11, 2001.

A shy girl in class, she has now learnt to speak in front of thousands of peace campaigners and activists on behalf of her husband and his presidential campaign. Dennis was slated for his anti-war views when he first ran for president in 2004 , but now ìrepresents the voice of the majority.

As the wife of a congressman, she mixes with politicians across the political divide. Earlier this month she attended a reception for the Queen at the British embassy with Dennis, and was thrilled to meet her. “I have great respect for the royal family because of their dedication to public service,” she said.

Another of her heroines is Diana, Princess of Wales. When she died, Elizabeth's mother rang her daughter in tears. “I was in shock for a very long time,” Elizabeth said. “She held an incredible position in my heart. I was devastated. There hasn't been anyone able to bring that compassion back into public life.”

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