Rachel Marsden And Jimmy Wales' Sex Chats And Break-Up E-Mail

Former Fox News personality Rachel Marsden recently broke up with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales — but not without sending him a scathing breakup email and forwarding transcripts of their steamy sex chats around the internet. The email and chats, excerpts of which appear below (for the full versions, visit Valleywag here and here), also seem to implicate Wales in an apparent conflict of interest involving top-down editing of Marsden's Wikipedia entry.

The e-mail (from Valleywag);

I only have one thing to say to you: You are the sleazebag I always suspected you were, and should have listened more carefully to my gut instincts -- and to my friends . No, in fact, you are much, much worse than I ever expected. You are an absolute creep, and it was a colossal mistake on my part to have gotten involved with you. Now, my suspicions about you have been proven dead-on. I never again want anything to do with you, and though I have every intention of putting all of this behind me ASAP (which will be VERY easy to do, given the disgusting reality), I am happy to tell anyone who happens to ask precisely what I think of you. There is nothing good left to say whatsoever. Goodbye Jimmy, and good riddance.

Sampling of the steamy IM conversations (view the entirety here):

Comments

[grimm]

What does it say about Wikipedia when the founder of the site doesn't have the brains to at least google this nutball Marsden?

Take it from an entire country - Canada - this gal is Glenn Close boilin' bunny INSANE.

[javaman]

more vapid internet news based on stupidity.

[tweeksmom]

Why was this necessary? It gave me the same sense I get when I walk into a barthroom and someone has unintentionally (or not) left a turd floating in the commode for all to see....

[truthyguy]

Who the F*^k cares?

[ObamaEdwards]

If the allegations by co-workers and former co-workers are true, and Wales misused large sums of money, I bet the Wikipedia donors care.
http://allswool.blogspot.com/2008/03/money-for-nothing-chicks-for-free.html

This reminds me of my own days in crazy start-ups. Money rolling in, no one knowing what to do with it, the guy in charge an overgrown child in love with himself, his vanity affirmed by all the attention. Yeah, I'd say the gal is kooky, but Wales is hoist with his own petard. Hee hee hee!

[goofticket]

Rachel "Mount Me" Madsen

Fox goes all slutty.
Didn't see that coming!

[HowardDalton]

What a Catty, Unstable, Neurotic Twit this woman is!

[PracticalIdealism]

Don't forget vindictive. Good luck to Rachel getting a date anytime soon. She's every man's worse nightmare.

[S1m0n]

If you google Marsden, you'll find that she's been involved in a string of very, very similar encounters right back to her university days in Vancouver. She's been the recipient of anti-stalking restraining orders, court cases and rights tribunals.

There are two sides to every argument, but when it happens to the same person over and over and over, it's time to conclude that she's the cause.

[beebop]

Poor, innocent, inexperienced and unworldly Jimbo! That horrible Rachel! Someone should have warned him!!!!!! How in the world did he every give it up for HER? Come on, boys! I'm wondering how he explains this little incident to Mrs. Jimbo .... sure hope that the primary residence is in California and hey, he can always rent a jet ....

[WilliePilgrim]

He's glad he's gone. She's mad he's gone. He's mad she's what she obviously was from the moment he ws no longer suffering from d.s.b inthe brain now and I'm sure she'd gladly s.t.f.u. for money.

[kcnativnla]

I love it when jilted girlfriends say things like "I never again want anything to do with you, and though I have every intention of putting all of this behind me ASAP (which will be VERY easy to do, given the disgusting reality..." All the while in the midst of writing pages and pages of rants on the subject. Here's a little secret, ladies who do this: WE DO NOT BELIEVE YOU! You don't spend this much time on somebody you don't care about (see: the man's response). In fact, all this little rant tells us is that all we have to do is call, say we're sorry, and ask you to come over. You'll be at our door and out of those clothes quicker than you can say "I have little self-respect".

Hilarious!

[ObamaEdwards]

Oh, wait. I was going to tell a story about two people who worked in the same office with me. They had been seeing each other off and on for years, and had one child out of wedlock. It was rumored that they had sex in a supply closet, and a few weeks later she hit him with the news that she was pregnant again. How did we all know the details? Because he printed out all of their emails one afternoon, presumably at the urging of a friend or an attorney, then left for the day and forgot to take the hard copy out of the printer. Yes, they went around. Yes, we read them. And if I did the same, I would be surprised if my coworkers didn't read my life and laugh. If you never never want it to be seen by anyone--do not email it.

[ObamaEdwards]

Jimbowiki! Oh, Jimbowiki! You must've really made her mad. Lesson One in the E-Age: If you've got eight hundred emails out there detailing your snuggle fun, do NOT make her mad.

[Gracchus21st]

In fairness to Wales, Marsden strikes me as the type who'd get mad if you surprised her with a strawberry ice cream ("because, you ABSOLUTE CREEP, I TOLD you that CHOCOLATE is my FAVOURITE!!!").

But yeah, I can see your point about that psycho-chick factor being a draw for some guys.

[ObamaEdwards]

Yeah, it's almost too bad it didn't work out, because they seem perfect for each other!

[hardrain77]

So is this why FISA was so important?

[Gracchus21st]

Wales showed some incredibly poor judgement here. As sxp151 says, Marsden is a real nutter. Her M.O. seems to be: 1) hook up with some sort of authority figure (coach, academic, undercover cop, radio host, encylopaedia founder, etc.); 2) get him to do something seriously unethical within his profession to her benefit; 3) amass some sort of documentary evidence of their affair; 4) start stalking or otherwise harrassing the mark when the affair goes sour; and finally 5) take the whole mess public in the press and/or law courts. There's been over a decade of this kind of behaviour, in at least two countries. Her early antics were even the inspiration for a movie.

It isn't like the romantic history of this public figure (albeit a very minor one) is some big undocumented secret, especially for a guy like Wales -- he probably researches a new toaster purchase 12 ways to Sunday. She must have a certain something to keep bypassing the psycho-chick detector of these men, though (no idea what it is -- based on available evidence it's not particularly stunning looks, high intelligence, or sexual creativity). One thing's for sure, though: there's another sucker waiting in the wings to play out Marsden's psychodrama once again.

[ellezeebub]

Yeah, makes you wonder. Why exactly did he think she got 86'd off Fox???

[ObamaEdwards]

I think the "psycho chick" factor IS the draw, for some guys. The very fact that she has this history makes her a challenge. Jimbowiki wanted to be the one to make her change!

[FirstShirt]

I echo, so what? Who cares? Anyone who is ignorant enough these days to put anything online or on email deserves to be embarassed.

[Gracchus21st]

The issue is that Wikipedia (which is a fantastic achievement) has recently been plagued by allegations that another core Wikipedia editor violated the conflict of interest policy:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/06/the_cult_of_wikipedia/print.html

Note the date. In the space of a month, we've immediately gone from one senior Wikipedia admin apparently whitewashing a cult's entry, to Wikipedia's founder apparently helping a crazy pundit to clean up hers. Wikipedia is regarded by much of the public as the authoritative brand (mistakenly and lazily; it's a wonderful starting point, but far from the be-all and end-all). When the integrity of an industry's major brand is called into question, it's newsworthy.

And the NSA/AT&T and workplace monitoring aside, there is a reasonable expectation of privacy between the two adult correspondents when it comes to personal e-mails and IM exchanges. I'm paranoid enough to encrypt business and legal correspondence, but the most I do with naughty e-mails and IMs is keep them under a separate account. But then, I try to keep my business life separate from my personal one, and trust that my correspondent isn't a publically-identified psychopath.

[ellezeebub]

Wikipedia as a concept is the best thing EVER.

Editors are people, same weaknesses. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater just because the guys running it are regular schmoes who skrew up.

[sxp151]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/29/marsden/

"That's because the 31-year-old columnist is already well known in her native Canada as an oft-accused and once-admitted stalker who made questionable rape charges of her own 10 years ago, in a case that eventually cut short the career of a university president and changed the tenor of harassment cases all over Canada. In 1999, a professor at the same university went to the police with charges Marsden was stalking him, and in 2004 she pleaded guilty to criminally harassing a former Vancouver radio host.".
"She claimed to have sent the suggestive e-mails in 'a desperate attempt to entice [Donnelly] into meeting with me so I could obtain accountability and an apology from him for the abuse, harassment and rape I suffered at his hands.'"

Yeah, she's batshit crazy. Apparently every time she breaks up with a guy, it's a big stink like this. Lucky there haven't been any criminal charges filed yet. You'd think a guy like the founder of Wikipedia could maybe read the Wikipedia article about her before dating her.

[BushBites]

Any way we can fix her up with O'Reilly?

[GeoNorth]

So fuckin' what? They broke up. She has to have her tantrum in public. I can't stand Fox Noise but even I have to admit, with her gone, they dodged a bullet. people break up every day. They don't have to air it in public. We don't care...and neither should we.