Walesa ‘Not Easy Man to Love,’ Wife Says

Poland’s best-known husband is secretive and tough to get along with, says the mother of Lech Walesa’s eight children, who adds: “I don’t think any other woman could put up with him.”

Danuta Walesa, wife of the Solidarity union leader for more than 20 years, bared her family secrets in a television interview today.

“Lech is not an easy man to love, understand and be with. I don’t think any other woman could put up with him,” she told a talk-show host on state television.

“He’s always so secretive. You talk to him, and you never know if you’re getting through or what he’s thinking about,” she said of the man widely expected to become Poland’s next president.

But Danuta Walesa added: “He usually comes around on family matters. . . . What goes on in the family is 98% dependent on a woman.”

Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, met his wife in 1969 at a flower shop where she was working. They were married a short while later and have children ranging from preschool age to young adults.

She told viewers that she enjoys political drama and danger. “When martial law was declared (in 1981 to stamp out the Solidarity), it didn’t really faze me. My husband was interned, but I knew they wouldn’t harm him,” she said.

Asked what was most important in life, Danuta Walesa said: “To raise our children to become decent human beings and good Poles, people who have respect for others. There’s too little of that nowadays.”