How to throw your family under the bus: from Rex Tillerson to Chris Huhne

It’s turning into the politician/business executive’s version of the dog ate my homework: my wife made me do it. This was the excuse (sorry, reason) given by Rex Tillerson for taking on the post of US secretary of state. “My wife told me I’m supposed to do this,” the former ExxonMobile oil executive confessed in an interview with the Independent Journal Review. He added that when he told her about the job, which makes him the first secretary of state with no military or government experience, Renda St Clair shook her finger in his face and said: “I told you God’s not through with you.”

God aside, St Clair wouldn’t be the first wife, partner or child thrown under the bus by their loved one in the name of political gain, cash or an expenses claim for a Sherlock Holmes DVD.

Chris Huhne and Vicky Price

In 2003, the then MEP, who would go on to become Lib Dem energy secretary, asked his then wife to take speeding points for him to avoid a six-month driving ban. A decade later, they were both jailed for perverting the course of justice. Huhne became the first former cabinet minister since Jonathan Aitken to be sent to prison.

KPMG director Andrew Wetherall and his wife

In the aftermath of the MPs’ expenses scandal, KPMG director Andrew Wetherall admitted to making false expenses claims totalling more than £545,000. Why? To keep his wife happy. “He felt the pressure of his current wife’s financial expectations and didn’t want her lifestyle to suffer, so he turned to crime to ensure that it didn’t,” argued prosecutor Samantha Hatt. Apparently, most of the money accrued over five years of defrauding his employer was put in a savings account, with the shortfall used for luxury holidays, meals and a £60,000 car.

Eliot and Silda Spitzer

In the 2008 scene that inspired The Good Wife, Silda Spitzer stood by her husband’s side as he resigned after it was revealed he used prostitutes incessantly while serving as governor for New York. Two years later, as grim details continued to emerge, a source close to the couple said Silda partly blamed herself for the scandal. “On some level, this is my fault,” she reportedly told her friend. “The wife is supposed to take care of the sex. This is my failing.” The couple divorced in 2014.

Robert and Maureen McDonnell

When Virginia governor Robert McDonnell was caught up in a scandal involving luxury gifts and loans he had received from a political donor, he blamed his wife of 37 years, Maureen. McDonnell claimed he didn’t know that the Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams had paid for $15,000 of high-fashion clothes for her and a $6,500 Rolex watch, which she gave her husband as a Christmas present. McDonnell’s defence alleged that Maureen had a “crush” on Williams and that, as she wasn’t a public official, the lavish presents didn’t count as corruption.

Francis Maude and his five children

When Francis Maude was Conservative MP for Horsham, his 2011 parliamentary expenses revealed that a £3.95 claim had been turned down. He explained that claim covered the cost of watching Sherlock Holmes, which his daughters had purchased without his knowledge. He then unwittingly put through the claim.