Cassie Interview
Arllan
Does anyone have a copy of the interview done by Cassie. I started reading it
earlier and my computer shut down and I lost it. Thanks.
Tim P.
>Does anyone have a copy of the interview done by Cassie. I started reading it
>earlier and my computer shut down and I lost it. Thanks.
<<Here are the contents of the interviews, as originally provided by
David Gorell. -- Tim P.>>
Folks, here is an earlier Cassy story from an Aus Mag!
The Australian Women's Weekly - March 1996
by Angela Donaldson
John Denver tried to DESTROY Us
For the first time, Cassandra Delaney Denver tells what really went
wrong with her fairytale marriage to superstar John. (This is
apparently the sixth first time Cassy has told a story similar to
this)
The fairytale began at the Sebel Town House in Sydney in 1985. Country
music star John Denver walked into the bar of the hotel after a night
out with friends. Immediately, he was captivated by the sight and
sound of the beautiful singer on stage, Australian Cassandra Delaney.
A passionate romance began, and their love was sealed in August 1988
in a mountain-top wedding above Aspen, Colorado, in the US.
'When I first met John, I really did think I was the luckiest girl in
the world,' recalls Cassandra, known as Cassy. In May 1989, their
'miracle' baby, Jesse, was born - after John had been told he was
sterile and would never father a child. But, in the years that
followed this idyllic beginning, things started to go horribly wrong.
This is the first time, Cassy, 33, has revealed the truth about John
Denver, 52, and their troubled marriage, which ended acrimoniously
after six years. They now are divorced and she is no longer willing to
'cover up' what John is like to 'protect his image'.
She tells of the bullying, threats, jealousy and heavy drinking that
destroyed them, and of the dramatic $3.3 million custody fight for
heir child. She brands him a 'control freak'. Ironically, we arrange
our meeting at the Sebel. Cassy and Jesse have been in Australia since
late last year, spending time with Cassy's mother, Lorraine, and
meeting old friends. Today, Larraine is baby-sitting her
grand-daughter.
Super-slim Cassy chats animatedly and happily about things in general,
while munching on toast and Vegemite. But an almost-visible cloud
comes over her when she talks about John. She first explains why she
feels compelled to speak out. 'It's important to keep some family
dignity and not gossip - especially when there's a child involved. But
when someone such as John is being constantly abusive and threatening,
you just have to say enough is enough.'
Cassy wistfully relives her early days with John: 'I was falling in
love with a spiritual man who was on the same path as me ... someone
who had a good heart. We had some good years together, but I should
have seen the signs of how he treated everyone else. John had no
friends and constantly upset his staff. Most of his secretaries were
often in tears and constantly leaving,' she says. 'He plays at being
the character John Denver, but there's another person there, John
Henry Deutschendorf [his real name], and that's who John always was
and really is.'
As the relationship fell apart, Cassy had no idea what to do. She felt
it would be disloyal to confide in anybody about their problems, so
she remained silent. 'I went into shock and I think I was in denial
for a long time,' she says. 'I wanted to make it work and I didn't
want anybody to know that I felt I'd made a mistake. And, like other
women, I thought I could change my man through love and compassion.
'It took me a long time finally to admit that this was abuse and it
wasn't right, and that I actually deserved to be loved
unconditionally.' Like many others, Cassy read in John's 1994
autobiography, Take Me Home, of the time he went berserk on his Aspen
property. He was married to his first wife, Annie, at the time and
'before I knew it my hands were around her throat,' he confessed. Then
he took a chainsaw to their furniture, lopping bits off. John's
confessions raised alarmed responses from women's rights
groups around the US.
The crunch in Cassy and John's marriage came shortly after Jesse was
born. Cassy wanted to stay at home with their baby; John wanted a
full-time nanny to care for her, so Cassy could continue touring with
him. 'I took care of him on the road,' she says. 'When Jesse came
along, he lost control of me and saw me sharing my love with her. I
think when a man and woman have a child - if the man is not mature
enough, and that's crazy because John's over 50 - the relationship can
fall apart. John became jealous. Nothing I did was right.'
John demanded a divorce, without any prior discussion. 'He just made
up his mind one day and said, 'I want a divorce and I don't want you
in my house'.' She and Jesse moved into the guest house. 'Once he'd
decided that it didn't work for him anymore, he could not go back on
that decision because his ego took over. He didn't have the compassion
to say, 'We need to find a way to make this work'. He wasn't willing
to do that, which was extremely disappointing, because I wanted to
make it work.'
Next, he applied for a restraining order to be put on Cassy, alleging
she was a physical threat. As the sheriff was on the way to serve the
papers, Cassy, Jesse and Lorraine, who was in Aspen to support her
daughter, were going to a mountain hideout. 'He demanded that I get a
lawyer and I had no other choice, because he threatened he was going
to take Jesse away from me, and watch me 'walk away and crumble to the
ground ... with nothing'. Those were his words and he threatened us
with them constantly. He's a very, very bitter man. And an angry man.'
After a long legal battle, with court costs exceeding $3.3 million,
Cassy was awarded primary custody of Jesse. Since everything -
including credit cards - were in John's name, she had to borrow from a
friend to pay her court costs. 'It's terrifying to have some
vindictive bully make that threat and actually get close to achieving
it, because of their money and power. It was a hard fight, but
definitely a worthwhile one,' she says.
The original terms of the custody were that Cassy must live in the US
and John was able to see Jesse whenever he wished, and vice versa.
'She sees him whenever she wants to - not that he's available all the
time. He hasn't been available for her very much at all. 'They mostly
speak on the phone, when he has a week off, he doesn't take
any consideration of her schooling of her schedule - he just wants her
then and that's all there is to it. Otherwise, he blows up and makes
things very difficult.'
But Jesse - a gorgeous six-year-old who is in Year One at school in
Los Angeles, where she and her mum now live - is a happy child, says
Cassy. 'We have a great life together and she loves going to school.
But John's never really been in her life because we separated when she
was just a baby, so she's not used to having him around, anyway.
'When he calls, he says, 'Hi, this is John Denver.' She thinks of her
daddy as John Denver and he's a singer and she sees him every now and
then.'
Looking back on their time together, Cassy recalls John's nightly
drinking sessions. 'If you're getting drunk every night, there's got
to be a problem.' Cassy feels the love she lavished on John masked his
true personality. 'I'm the type of person that, if I love someone, I
want to be joined to their life. I did that to John for many years, so
I think that subdued who he really was. I think he got tired of
playing the game and it snapped in him and he just turned back into
who he really is.'
Cassy believes that John first loved her strong will, but it was that
- and her refusal to bow to his demands - which eventually led to his
decision to divorce her. 'I don't think that anybody's ever really
said 'no' to John,' she says. 'He became a star - a big star - quite
early on, before he really matured as a man. He's very intimidating.
Everybody walks on eggshells around him. But he didn't intimidate me,
and I think that's what he saw in me, and what he loved in me. I was
able to be myself and I wasn't overawed by him.'
Then, she relates a frightening incident that happened on Christmas
Day 1992, when John arrived to pick up Jesse to take her back to his
ranch. Cassy and Jesse had been skiing with friends and were five
minutes late getting home. 'John was there and enraged, and grabbed
Jesse out of my arms and threw her in his Porsche. She automatically
started crying. I could tell that he was drunk. I could smell it on
him and I just knew he was, anyway. I ran around to the car and got
Jesse out and ran to the house and locked the door. I called the
police because he was outside just going ballistic and out of
control.' Cassy says John refused to put Jesse's seatbelt on. 'He
would never put Jesse in a seatbelt and insisted that, when she was
with him, he could do whatever he wanted.' The police arrived and
drove Jesse to John's property.
Today, Cassy keeps herself going with motherhood and her own music.
She's working on an album which should be released later this year.
'Motherhood is my best role and that takes up a lot of my time - and
happily so. I love being a mother.' Although Cassy and Jesse have
started a new life, Cassy says John's attempts to control her go on.
Recently, he started to pay less maintenance for Jesse.
'He's decided that he's going to cut the child support - which is the
only maintenance that I accepted from him - back to a certain amount,
because he sees that I'm happy and I'm getting on in my career and
things are starting to look good for us.' So it's back to the courts -
Delaney versus Denver, once again. 'I'm going to make it right,
whether that's getting it back to how it was or changing it. I'm going
to make it right for Jesse and me, so we can get on with our lives.'
'He has been an incredible bully. His behaviour has been unforgivable.
He's tried everything he can do to destroy us, as a family.' But,
Cassy says, 'I've had enough now. I'm not going to sit back and take
it anymore.'
David Gorell <david....@dao.defence.gov.au>
Canberra, ACT Australi
------------------------------------------------------
- Friday, November 21, 1997 at 09:00:01 (CST)
Our Tender Last Days Together
John Denver's Aussie-born wife Cassandra insists that the love of her
life is not gone ... she still feels his presence everywhere When she
learned of John Denver's death, Cassandra Delaney, his Aussie-born
ex-wife, was shattered. 'Such devastation I have never known,' she
says. 'I felt as if my umbilical cord had been cut and that I was
reeling in space, unable to breathe.'
But life goes on in the Californian home she shares with Jesse - Cassy
and John's eight-year-old daughter. Home is a two-storey Colonial
house in Bel Air with a white picket fence. Jesse is upstairs. Cassy,
34, stands under the stairs beside a circle of yellow flowers
surrounding a soft pink candle. The flame shines on photographs of the
Denver family during happier times. It's a shrine, Cassy points out,
to a very special life.
Cassy walks through to the back garden and settles into a chair,
tensely crossing her arms. 'I'm a bit nervous about doing this,' she
confides. 'At this stage, there is nothing to do but honour someone
who is gone. John's death has been an incredible insight for me - a
heartbreaking reality. But I know John would want to thank everybody
for their support. The mail keeps coming from people writing about how
John's music affected their lives. He would be so thrilled at the
outpouring of affection for his music and his memory. So I want to
address that. I feel it's important to acknowledge the man for who
he really was ... the good side.'
Cassy says she prefers not to dwell on her ex-husband's frailties.
'John was never violent with me,' she says in a soft, but
authoritative voice. 'John was not an alcoholic.' Despite her
reluctance to explore John's darker side, Cassy speaks candidly
about the man she loved so passionately. 'John was always working,'
she says. 'It was in his make-up to always be working and he wanted to
make a difference. It was really important to him. I think he had a
difficult time balancing his family and career.'
'When we were together, before Jesse was born, we were always on a
plane going to a benefit or a concert. It was very exciting. But
somewhere along the way, we stopped communicating.' Cassy says the
breakdown of communication between them was so severe that, towards
the end of their marriage in 1991, the couple had resorted to writing
each other notes, expressing their feelings of confusion and conflict
- while they were living under the same roof.
That was the worst it got, Cassy says, but her eyes grow bright as she
remembers happier times with the love of her life. 'I was very much in
love with John,' she says softly. 'The minute I saw him, I knew
instantly that he was going to be the father of my children.'
'The greatest gift John gave me was Jesse. She has a love for life,
like John, and she shares his great strength of character. I am
constantly amazed at how well she is handling her father's death.
She's actually been a great example for me. Children are better at
letting go.'
In life, John had been unable to let Cassandra go and she remained
inextricably tied to him. He never let Cassy's or Jesse's birthdays
pass - or even Cassy's mum's - without sending flowers. More recently,
John, 53, had left his Aspen home and moved closer to his ex-wife and
daughter while they worked on becoming a family again. Cassy admits,
'Yes, a reconciliation was in progress all the way up to John's death.
We talked on the phone frequently about our feelings and John came
here regularly to spend time with us. I find it a great blessing and
am incredibly grateful that we were at that point of forgiving one
another.'
The day of John's fatal evening plane crash had been a happy one for
Cassy and Jesse, arranged by an adoring but, as Cassy points out,
somewhat strict father. 'John arranged a day at Disneyland for me,
Jesse and friends of hers visiting from Aspen,' she says. 'He had a
car drive there and every conceivable courtesy was bestowed upon us,
including a lovely meal at the finest restaurant on the grounds. John
was always thoughtful and romantic.'
'Before Jesse was born, John and I would get on a horse and ride for a
couple of days and wind up wherever the end of the day took us.' 'I
will never forget the first time we went camping. We loaded a
helicopter then were flown over the most beautiful mountains, finally
descending onto our own private campsite.' 'The helicopter flew off
and it was just the two of us. We sat around a fire and played our
guitars and sang. The next morning we hiked to the lake and played in
the water. That afternoon the helicopter picked us up.'
'John was incredibly romantic. Even our divorce was, strange as this
must sound, sentimental! Just moments after we signed the decree, John
held me in his arms and said, 'You are the woman I always knew you
were and I love you and I'll always take care of you and Jesse'. Then
we went out to dinner that night and had a bottle of wine.'
'We were proud of ourselves for seeing through the break-up with
integrity and supporting each other and doing the best we could for
each other - and Jesse.' That night John was jailed for driving under
the influence of alcohol. A year later, on the first anniversary of
his divorce, he was arrested a second time for the same charge.
Still, Cassy insists John was not an alcoholic. 'Yes, he loved a glass
of wine after working so hard. He loved a party.'
'He was very controlling. John enjoyed being an entertainer but, with
fame, other people were in control of aspects of his life, so maybe
that's why he had the need to control me because he felt a little out
of control himself. And, I think I was a bit of a challenge for John.
I have always been very independent.'
'I sent John out on the road by himself after Jesse's birth because I
didn't want her raised by nannies. It wasn't long, though, before I
began to feel stifled creatively. When I began thinking about pursuing
my own singing and acting career in the States, John became very
threatened.' 'He was, at times, very old-fashioned and stubborn. It
didn't sit well with him to let me follow my dreams. We both behaved
badly towards each other. But neither of us was able to let go.'
'I had a couple of relationships after we divorced but neither John
nor I could love anyone else because we still had such a strong love
bond.' 'Immediately after I learned of his death, I felt compelled to
take Jesse and go up in an aircraft to be with John. When he was
alive, the man was in a plane every day so I knew we would surely find
him in the sky.'
'I didn't want to leave Aspen after the service. I went to our home
there and nothing, not one thing, had been touched since I'd left
there five years ago.' 'I went into the library to find the
leather-bound book that held our wedding vows. It was gone. Frantic, I
looked all through the house, only to find it among John's personal
papers in his bathroom!' 'I was at once happy and sad, knowing he must
have been reading them recently.'
Cassy still wears the diamond solitaire and emerald wedding band John
gave her. 'He wore emeralds and diamonds too,' she says softly.
'Emeralds and diamonds together are a strong force connecting to your
love chakra.' Cassy can no longer hold back a tear, 'He's not gone,'
she says bravely. 'I feel his presence everywhere, and Jesse and I
have only to play his music to know he is here with us and always will
be.'
Cathy Griffin
Australian Woman' Day
November 17, 1997
David Gorell <david....@dao.defence.gov.au>
Canberra, ACT Australi
------------------------------------------------------
- Wednesday, November 12, 1997 at 16:01:05 (CST)>>
melissa...@gmail.com
concre...@gmail.com
dbute...@gmail.com
eagib...@gmail.com
> Cassie gives a fictional account of her promiscuous adulterous life