Another reason why women are referred to as the fairer sex.
While it's doubtful that Donald Trump is going to have much to say in public about daughter Ivanka Trump's latest coup—charming her dad's favorite talking point, Rosie O'Donnell, during what sounds almost like a chance meeting on the street—this is yet another instance of Ivanka being a bright spot during this bruising presidential race.
"@IvankaTrump in a city of 8 million - we meet face 2 face - i thank u 4 listening - mother 2 mother - on this new years week - my best 2 u," O'Donnell tweeted yesterday, a week after Trump made another crack about her, this time during the presidential debate.
No details about what actually transpired have been forthcoming, with O'Donnell's camp deferring to the tweet. But Ivanka being so diplomatic and, frankly, her usual classy self reminded us of how Ivanka and Melania Trump have been the least polarizing figures on Trump's side of the aisle—similar, in a way, to how even when people take issue with President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama can do no wrong. A wife isn't called her husband's "better half" for nothing.
Politics aside, the celebrity world is full of men who have readily credited the women in their lives (or they should, if they haven't) for making them better people.
Whether a woman has cleaned up his messes, offered a solution to a problem, made a decision for him or otherwise helped turn his life around, it may just be true that, behind every man who's succeeded at anything, there's a great woman—be it a mother, a wife, a daughter or other influential female figure—who's helped him get to where he is.
Kim Kardashian West
Kanye West was always a devoted son to mom Donda West, so he understood the importance of having a strong woman in his life; and since she passed away he has fully credited his wife for giving him purpose. "She would make me feel like I was here for a reason and I had something to say, and just support me through that," the rapper gushed about Kim on Ellen once, and then in another interview reiterated, "She gave me everything, she gave me family, she gave me a support system." And quite memorably, he said in Interview magazine, "The teachings and the confidence that was instilled by my grandfather into my mother, and from my mother into me—which will now, of course, be instilled by me into North—will create the best winter coat against doubters and dream-killers ever made."
Susan Downey
No one has become a huger success after teetering on the brink than Robert Downey Jr., and the Marvel Universe super-star has been more than happy to give credit where it's due. "The exit strategy [from drug use] was in process" when they met on the set of Gothika in 2003, RDJ told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014 about his wife and production and business partner. Fast-forward a bit, and Downey hit the ground running and never looked back. "She is the font of all good things," Downey continued. "Before I met Susan, I didn't even know what producers did, except yell at you when you did something they didn't like. Now that I understand what they do, she's the only one I want." And their life of constant companionship suits him and his needs.
"I see it as a part of several different therapeutic interactions that we are constantly engaged in," Downey also told THR. "It's another form of co-parenting. We co-parent our children, our relationship, our business. It's all the same. It's all part of the therapy of life."
Rhea Durham
Mark Wahlberg, that trou-dropping troublemaker turned long-married father of four, says it was his longtime love, Durham, who got him to snap out of his womanizing ways.
"The first time I fell in love, and when I was in jail, she denied me—she didn't want to wait for me. I don't want to blame her now but my heart was broken and I decided, 'I'm never giving my heart to a girl anymore.' Everything but not that," he recalled in a 2013 interview.
"And I ended up hurting a lot of people along the way. It was not until I met my wife and we had our daughter that I went, 'Oh my God, this is happening for a reason.' So now I have the utmost respect for women and teach my boys that. They shall not take the path that daddy took."
Camila Alves
Matthew McConaughey let it be known that it was his missus who helped push him to take his career to another level. "My wife, Camila, who's not only put up with me for all this time in our seven years, and this last three years...she kicked my ass out the door and said, 'Go get it McConaughey, go get it, my man, my king,'" he jocularly accepted his Golden Globe for Dallas Buyers Club in the midst of his triumphant 2014 awards season, which culminated with an Oscar win.
Alves, sitting in the audience, just shook her head with good-natured exasperation at that whole "my king" bit, knowing full well that, yes, she deserves every marital accolade that comes her way.
Jennifer Garner
Like McConaughey, Ben Affleck credited his wife—whom he remains close to despite their separation—with giving him the courage to go for it in his career, which in his case involved a complete turnaround from some laughable moments. "Getting to know Jennifer, falling in love with her and being connected with her gave me a foundation to reach out and say, okay, I'm going to do Hollywoodland. I'm going to direct Gone Baby Gone.' Those were the steps forward I needed to put positive stuff on the board," Affleck said toward the end of 2014.
Patti Scialfa
Bruce Springsteen's wife and E Street Band mate has been by his side for more than 25 years, during which, at times, the rocker suffered from depression, which had also plagued his father. "She was stable enough and strong enough, and she brought a lot of love so those are very healing things over a long period of time," Springsteen said on Australia's Sunday Night recently. Or to put it this way, he wrote in his new memoir Born to Run, "Patti will observe a freight train bearing down, loaded with nitroglycerin and running quickly out of track" so "she gets me to the doctors and says, 'This man needs a pill.'"
June Carter Cash
While June would never accept the sort of credit foisted upon her for turning Johnny Cash's drug-addled life around, as we saw Reese Witherspoon do for Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line, there was no doubt that she was his partner, muse and reason for being from, if not the moment they met, than the moment they said "I do." While the provenance of this quote can't be verified— "What June did for me was…lift me when I was weak, encourage me when I was discouraged, and love me when I was alone and felt unlovable. She is the greatest woman I have ever known. Nobody else, except my mother, comes close"—a love letter Johnny wrote to June in 1994 for her 65th birthday was voted the most romantic love letter of all time in a 2015 poll conducted by a British insurance company.
"You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You're the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence," Cash wrote.
And that about says it all.
Blac Chyna
Rob Kardashian had distanced himself from his family and wandered off the map before falling in love with Blac Chyna. Now, engaged and with a baby on the way, the only son of Kris Jenner and the late Robert Kardashian is working through his issues—and crediting his fiancée with helping him change the course of his life.
"Chyna definitely motivates me," Rob told People in August. "Being with her got me over the insecurity of being out in public...She got me through my darkest times. I wasn't happy in my own skin. I missed out on so many things." And rather like June refusing to take the credit for saving Johnny, Chyna insisted, "I never wanted to change him."
Which is what any woman who knows just how much she means to her man would say.