From Warhol to Castro: the controversial life of Justin Trudeau's mother

Justin Trudeau's mother, Margaret Trudeau, has demonstrated over the years that there is much more to her than simply being the mother of Canada's prime minister.

Margaret Trudeau has the distinction of being the only Canadian woman to have been the wife of a prime minister and mother of another prime minister.

However, this Vancouver-born public figure used to hang out with Andy Warhol and the Rolling Stones and is even rumored to have had an affair with a foreign world leader.

Who knows, maybe Justin Trudeau got his wild side he was known for in youth from his mother!

Older Canadians probably remember when her exploits made all sorts of salacious headlines back in the day. Some even speculated that Justin Trudeau wasn't Pierre Trudeau’s son but the love child of a well-known international figure.

Margaret Trudeau (née Sinclair) was born in Vancouver in 1948. Her father was Liberal politician James Sinclair, who served as a member of parliament for 18 years. Her relationship with the Liberal Party started at a young age indeed!

18-year-old Margaret met then-Minister of Justice Pierre Trudeau while vacationing in Tahiti. The elder Trudeau was almost 30 years her senior and, by all accounts, became enthralled with the young flower child.

In the beginning, Trudeau and Sinclair kept the relationship private. He became Prime Minister in 1968 and the two married in 1971. The public only really learned about Margaret when the press announced the couple was on their honeymoon in the Caribbean.

Margaret Trudeau worked to be more than Mrs. Pierre Trudeau from the get-go. The twenty-something girl with a hippy-like air about her injected new energy into Canadian politics that her middle-aged Liberal Quebecois husband desperately needed.

The top Liberal Party organizers at the time considered Margaret an important campaign asset and would send her to hotly contested constituencies, generally with positive results.

There were some blunders too. In 1974, she told an audience of over 2,000 in Vancouver that her husband had taught her 'a lot about loving', which was mocked by Trudeau’s rivals.

“I just stand there and smile and don't say anything,” she confessed to the Toronto Star in 1974. She was willing to support her husband's career, but she felt empty regarding her own life.

Margaret Trudeau might have been popular, but she was involved in a number of scandals over the years. From smuggling illegal substances in the prime minister’s luggage to showing up in New York City’s iconic Studio 54 with revealing clothes and even destroying a piece of art by Joyce Wieland hanging in the Prime Minister’s residence in Ottawa.

The marriage soon began to fall apart. In her memoir ‘Beyond Reason’, Margaret stated that, as the prime minister’s wife, she fell isolated from the rest of the world.

At the same time, the prime minister became an increasingly absent figure in her life due to his government obligations. She was raising three boys on her own, and not even a second honeymoon could solve that.

Margaret has admitted that she soon began a series of affairs, including some high-profile personalities. One of them was senator Ted Kennedy, brother of US President John F. Kennedy.

She also was linked back in the day to a few members of The Rolling Stones, including Mick Jagger himself.

Some even claim she also had a thing with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Not only that, but in 2018 the rumor that Fidel Castro might be Justin Trudeau's real dad gained traction. People would point out a certain resemblance between the younger Trudeau and the Cuban leader, sans beard.

Also, it's no secret that was amicability between Castro and the Trudeaus. The Cuban dictator even went to Pierre Trudeau's funeral in 2000.

However, the Associated Press reported that Pierre and Margaret Trudeau visited Cuba in 1976, dispelling the theory since Justin was born in 1971.

What is true is that the two separated in 1977. Margaret was seen dancing at Studio 54 on the eve of the 1979 general election when the Liberal Party was defeated after 11 years in power. The Quebecois politician would return to power the year after.

They formally divorced in 1984, the same year that Pierre Trudeau resigned as Prime Minister and retired from politics. Without him, the Liberal Party suffered its worst electoral result in history. It was the end of an era.

Since then, Margaret Trudeau has been known as a socialite and mental health activist. She revealed in 2006 that she had bipolar disorder. Trudeau has also dabbled in acting, putting on a one-woman show in 2019.

Margaret was with Pierre Trudeau and their two surviving children when he passed away in 2000. “Just because our marriage ended didn't mean the love stopped,” she told Maclean’s Magazine many years later.

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