Saturday, May 05, 2012

EXCLUSIVE: First picture of Barack Obama's first serious girlfriend... and how she went on to marry a Serbian boxer who is now one of New York's most famous bartenders | Mail Online

This is what I was afraid of. Maranis lied about his intentions and now this normal woman is being publicly humiliated and she did not expect what she is getting!!! This is why I lied to the Maranis researcher! 


EXCLUSIVE: First picture of Barack Obama's first serious girlfriend... and how she went on to marry a Serbian boxer who is now one of New York's most famous bartenders

  • Alex McNear met a young Barack Obama at Occidental College in California
  • Two also had a 'summer of romance' in 1981 when Obama transferred to Columbia
  • Once married to Serbian boxer Bob Bozic, who is now a bartender at world-famous Fanelli's Cafe in SoHo
  • Now with child psychologist Robert Stein; they live in Sag Harbor

By Daniel Bates

PUBLISHED: 12:27 EST, 4 May 2012 | UPDATED: 13:09 EST, 4 May 2012

Pictured: Alex McNear also used to date President Obama

Serious girlfriend: Alex McNear was Mr Obama's first serious girlfriend; the two began dating after they met at Occidental College


This is the woman who was Barack Obama's first serious girlfriend, MailOnline can exclusively reveal.

Alex McNear is a mother-of-one who runs a green energy company and lives in a $2million mansion in Sag Harbor, New York.

She is also a Democrat who is understood to have voted for Mr Obama in the 2008 election.

This week it emerged that she won the heart of the future president whilst at college, but until now the story of what happened next to her has not been told.

Rather than moving into the White House she wed a rather less glamorous compensation prize - a Serbian boxer who once tried to rob $60,000 from a bank.

Miss McNear married Bob Bozic in a ceremony which appalled her mother and brought a former vagrant and one time bookmaker into their upper middle class family.

Mr Obama meanwhile romanced his second love Genevieve Cook before meeting Michelle Obama and marrying her - and becoming leader of the Free World.

In her first comments since the story broke, Miss McNear told MailOnline: 'I am not giving any interviews.

'I did that one interview with David Maraniss for reasons I won't go into.

'I have nothing more to say about the whole subject'.

Asked if she would go on a date with Mr Obama if he got back in touch with her, Miss McNear said 'goodbye' and hung up the phone.

Miss McNear was named for the first time this week as the first person Mr Obama fell for in extracts from a forthcoming biopic about the president by author David Maraniss.

She told how the two met at Occidental College in California and had a summer romance at the age of 20 in New York in 1981 when he transferred to Columbia to finish his studies. President Obama's first serious girlfriend, Genevieve Cook, has shared her diaries about their year-long love affair for a new biography.

First love: McNear said she met Mr Obama at Occidental College in California and had a summer romance at the age of 20 in New York in 1981 when he transferred to Columbia to finish his studies

Former flame: Miss McNear, circled, was a literary type from a waspish family who was seduced by Mr Obama's intellectual musings on T.S. Eliot

Former flame: Miss McNear, circled, was a literary type from a waspish family who was seduced by Mr Obama's intellectual musings on T.S. Eliot

The story of what happened next however is equally extraordinary - how a woman who could have been the First Lady ended up with a prize fighter whose claim to fame is losing a 1973 bout with boxer Larry Holmes at Madison Square Garden.

On the face of it, Miss McNear and Mr Bozic made an extremely unlikely pair, even if her mother Suzanne was fiction editor at Playboy in the 1960s and 70s.

Miss McNear was a literary type from a waspish family who was seduced by Mr Obama's intellectual musings on T.S. Eliot.

 

Burly Mr Bozic however spent part of his youth struggling to survive on the streets of Toronto having run away from home.

He was so desperate he would spend his nights sleeping in Laundromats or parked cars and spend his days stealing to makes ends meet.

But love found a way, and in 1987 they got married, and stayed together for seven years, but then divorced.

Bob Bozic - ex-husband to Alex McNear
Bob Bozic - ex-husband to Alex McNear

The boxer: Ms McNear married Bob Bozic in 1987; he famously lost to boxer Larry Holmes at Madison Square Garden in 1973

New vocation: Bozic now works at the world-famous Fanelli Cafe in SoHo

New vocation: Bozic now works at the world-famous Fanelli Cafe in SoHo

They had a daughter together, Vesna, now 20, an aspiring actress who lives in Manhattan and remain close to this day.

In a frank assessment of his function in Miss McNear's life, Mr Bozic has said she married him to 'separate' herself from her family.

And it was not hard to see why.

According to a profile in the New Yorker magazine, he was everything her life was not.

The working class son of an engineer, Mr Bozic got into boxing when the owner of a gym in Toronto took pity on him and gave him a meal every day, making him stay around long enough to get interested in fighting.

In time he became the Canadian national amateur heavyweight champion but went into semi-retirement when he began to lose and travelled around Europe, stopping in Ibiza and Sweden.

His most serious brush with the law came in 1980 when he was broke and in a bad mental place -  supposedly he was sent over the edge when faced with going to the opera on his own.

World-renowned: Fanelli's Cafe in SoHo has been serving drinks since 1922 and is one of New York's oldest continuously-serving bars

World-renowned: Fanelli's Cafe in SoHo has been serving drinks since 1922 and is one of New York's oldest continuously-serving bars

Current partner: McNear is now with Dr Robby Stein

Current partner: McNear is now with Dr Robby Stein, a child psychologist; they live in Sag Harbor

Mr Bozic then walked into a branch of the Manufacturers Hanover bank in Manhattan and told them than men outside had guns pointed at the bank.

He asked for $60,000 and was taken to the vault before the police arrested him. He was given a lenient sentence of probation after admitting robbery in the third degree.

It was after this that he met Miss McNear whilst working as a bouncer at a transvestite club in New York, a job he had only taken to try and keep the judge in his court case happy.

She was working as a lawyer in Chicago at the time phoned up the club asking for a place to hold a benefit night.

He told her his life story and, against all odds, they began to fall for each other.

Happy golden years: Mr Obama is pictured with his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham on a park bench outside of New York's Central Park, when Obama was a student at Columbia

Happy golden years: Mr Obama is pictured with his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham on a park bench outside of New York's Central Park, when Obama was a student at Columbia

Obama is seen with his father Barack Obama, Sr. in the 1960s
David Maraniss

Family ties: Mr Obama pictured with his father, Barack Obama Sr, in a family photo from the 1960s, left; Mr Obama's ex-girlfriends were interviewed by author David Maraniss, who is releasing a book on the President

Mr Bozic, 61, now works as a barman in New York, a far cry from the affluent lifestyle of his ex-wife.

Miss McNear, 51, runs renewable energy company GreenLogic in Southampton, New York.

Her long term partner is Robert Stein, in his 60s, a child psychologist and their home is on a leafy street in Sag Harbor, which is close the millionaire's playground of The Hamptons.

They two are heavily involved in community affairs and Mr Stein is a member of the village board.

Miss McNear has also worked as a journalist and has written for the local paper the East Hampton Star and attended numerous meetings on zoning issues and developments in the area.

In the extracts of Mr Obama's biography it was his second girlfriend Miss Cook who had harsh words of criticism for him.

But according to the New Yorker piece, Miss McNear also has a sharp tongue when it comes to men. She once said of Mr Bozic: 'Bob is fascinated and appalled by Wasps' - but he still married her.

Speaking from Fanelli's Bar where he works Mr Bozic said: 'I love my ex-wife and I'm very close to her so I'm not going to be able to say anything.'

Asked if he knew the extracts were being made public he said: 'Yes, but she (Miss McNear) didn't know this was going to happen.

First couple: Mr Obama went on to date Genevieve Cook before he eventually met and married Michelle

First couple: Mr Obama went on to date Genevieve Cook before he eventually met and married Michelle

'She didn't know it was going to be like this. She is extremely private and very shy.'

He declined to comment on how he felt about being the man who beat Mr Obama for his ex-wife's affections.

Mr Stein said that he and Miss McNear both wanted to 'put this behind us and get on with our lives'.

Asked whether or not she had told him the extracts about her relationship with Mr Obama were going to be published before they were made public, he said: 'We're very happy for Mr Obama, we're happy he's done so well. I voted for him'.

A friend of Miss McNear added: 'Alex is so embarrassed about this coming out right now. She has a family and is a grown up, for her to be called somebody's 'girlfriend' is really making her cringe.

'It was all in the past but her family still tease her about it. I know her sisters say they would have liked to have been in the White House, but ce la vie.

'To think she could have been First Lady, and she married a boxer instead. You couldn't make it up'.

Another ex: Cook, seen her in college at Swathmore, wrote how Obama loved running and lived in an apartment that smelled of raisins and sweat; she was 25 when they dated
Another ex: Cook, seen her in college at Swathmore, wrote how Obama loved running and lived in an apartment that smelled of raisins and sweat; she was 25 when they dated

Another ex: Cook, seen her at college at Swathmore, wrote how Obama loved running and lived in an apartment that smelled of raisins and sweat; she was 25 when they dated

Love nest: A young Barack Obama lived with his former girlfriend Genevieve Cook on the top floor of this Park Slope townhouse after he graduated from Columbia

Love nest: A young Barack Obama lived with his former girlfriend Genevieve Cook on the top floor of this Park Slope townhouse after he graduated from Columbia

 

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