Exclusive: An Iran-Contra Romance

Oliver North and Fawn Hall are wed in a “secret” ceremony in rural Virginia

The happy couple, back in the day (George Bennett photos).  

They were once central figures in a political scandal that rocked Washington. Oliver North was a top National Security Council staffer in Ronald Reagan’s White House who, after helping to arrange the illicit sale of American weapons to Iran, diverted the proceeds to fund a secret war in Nicaragua. Fawn Hall was his fetching and ever loyal secretary— so loyal that she spirited incriminating documents out of the White House in her boots and the back of her skirt.

The ensuing Iran-contra scandal spurred investigations by Congress and by an independent counsel, ending the government careers for both of them. 

But all’s well that end’s well.

On August 27, the recently widowed 81-year-old North married Hall, 65, in a private ceremony presided over by a retired judge in Virginia. There has been no public announcement of the nuptials, including on North’s social media accounts. But SpyTalk obtained a copy of the marriage license filed in a state courthouse in Berryville in rural Clarke County.

The North-Hall romance came after much heartache for both of them. North’s wife of 56 years, Betsy, the mother of his four children, died last November after spending nearly two years in hospice care suffering from a neurological disorder.  Hall, after being forced to testify before Congress and a federal grand jury and getting caught up  in a federal drug investigation in Washington in the late 1980’s, fled to Hollywood, where she worked for a time as a model and married Danny Sugarman, the manager for The Doors. According to a 2012 Washington Post account, Sugarman admitted in a 1995 interview he introduced Hall to crack cocaine and that she quickly became addicted, leading to an overdose and a stint in drug rehab. Sugarman died from lung cancer in 2005. 

A friend of the couple tells SpyTalk it was at the funeral for Betsy at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, Virginia last December when North and Hall reunited. “She rekindled the relationship at the funeral,” said the friend who asked not to be publicly identified. “They started spending time together”— including at North’s sprawling farm in Bluemont in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

The wedding itself was low-key and none of North’s four children attended. Fittingly, for the Iran-contra couple, “It was a secret marriage,” said the friend.

Just what the future holds for the two of them is unclear. North has cut back substantially on his public activities, no longer appearing as a regular on Fox News. But he remains involved in Freedom Alliance, an advocacy and support group for wounded service members, makes occasional appearances on his friend Sean Hannity’s Fox show and continues to post patriotic messages on social media while promoting tough immigration policies in line with those of President Trump. 

In that, he seems to have found a kindred spirit in Hall, who, while maintainings her ties to the Hollywood entertainment world, even while she sticks by her conservative politics.  Last  April, she attended a memorial service for Richard Lewis, the late comedian, where Larry David of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame gave a eulogy. Someone who attended the service and was introduced to Hall there said she was friendly and chatty, But when the talk came to the events of January 6, 2021 she made clear she shared Donald Trump’s view of the world, contending that  those who had been arrested had been “directed” by federal agents to storm the U.S. Capitol and were effectively set up. She portrayed the attack as a “false flag,” the attendee said, a puzzling sentiment in an otherwise staunchly liberal crowd. 

SpyTalk reached out to North via email seeking a comment from him and his bride. They did not respond.