FRANKFORT — Six months ago they were the toast of Kentucky — the surgeon-turned-powerful politician marrying the stunning small-town girl who had just completed her reign as America's beauty queen.

        Lt. Gov. Steve Henry and former Miss America Heather Renee French — wearing a $1 million diamond tiara once worn by Princess Diana — exchanged vows in October in a lavish ceremony before 1,200 guests and a live local television audience in Louisville.

Lt. Gov. Steve Henry and former Miss America Heather Renee French at their October wedding. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        The future looked bright. He was preparing a run for governor. She was going to continue her work on behalf of military veterans. They were going to start a family.

        It's a different picture these days for the state's Second Couple. While their personal lives seem to have followed the idyllic path that began with the wedding — they are expecting their first child, a girl, in July — their public lives have been a storm of controversy over embarrassing allegations about the misuse of tax money and the threat of criminal charges against Mr. Henry.

        Last week the couple talked about the turn their lives have taken, the glare of the media spotlight, the harsh realities of Frankfort politics and their future in Kentucky's political scene.

        Seated together on a sofa in the lieutenant governor's small Statehouse office, both Mr. and Mrs. Henry said others, including political foes and reporters, are to blame for their problems.

        “Since the day we got off the plane from our honeymoon, we were met ... with the camera and the microphone asking us about our situation in public life,” Mr. Henry, 47, said.

        “Since that time there has been a volley of attacks,” he said, “a campaign of public and personal destruction.”

        Mrs. Henry, 25, a Maysville native seeking a master's degree in fashion design from the University of Cincinnati, said most of the press coverage she received as the 2000 Miss America was positive.

        But since the wedding she feels she has been inaccurately portrayed “as a bathing suit beauty with crown and heels” while her work on behalf of veterans has been played down, if not ignored.

        “It is very hard for me to get things done in Kentucky for veterans that I want to get done because of that aura that has been created since we've been married,” Mrs. Henry said.

        Others have said that the couple, particularly Mr. Henry, have brought the problems on themselves.

        • In mid-November State Auditor Ed Hatchett announced he was looking into allegations that state money and employees were used to carry out the couple's Oct. 27 wedding.

        Mr. Henry denied the charges but within three weeks reimbursed the state $4,722 to cover the costs of trips — including some he made with his future wife — and other expenses. But the money was not repaid to cover costs associated with the wedding, he said.

        However, Mrs. Henry's mother, Diana French, paid the state $2,116.32 to pay for the printing of media packets for the wedding, phone calls, business cards and other expense.

        Mr. Hatchett is continuing his probe, which includes determining whether any state employees helped plan the wedding on state time.

        In the interview Mr. Henry did not comment directly on the auditor's probe other than to say that when Mr. Hatchett's final report is made, people will see that no state money or time was used to plan his wedding.

        • In early November it was reported that Libbi Taylor, the former director of the Miss Kentucky Pageant, had been hired by the state as Mrs. Henry's assistant at a salary of $51,900.

        Mr. Henry strongly denied that Ms. Taylor was hired to be his wife's assistant, insisting instead that she was hired as a member of his official staff.

        But in December an Aug. 8 memo surfaced. It was written by an aide to Mr. Henry and directed that Ms. Taylor be placed on the state payroll as an executive assistant to Mrs. Henry.

        Mr. Henry told the Louisville Courier-Journal in December that the memo contained an error about the job description. He continues to maintain that Ms. Taylor was hired for his staff. Her job title is deputy chief of staff.

        • The most serious allegations against Mr. Henry emerged in early March, when the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky office in Louisville subpoenaed about 8,000 pages of the travel and scheduling records of Mr. Henry and his Kentucky State Police security detail. The subpoenas were issued by a federal grand jury empaneled in Louisville.

        The investigation was triggered by a tip Mr. Hatchett received during his probe of the Henrys' wedding. It apparently focuses on allegations that Mr. Henry — an orthopedic surgeon — improperly billed government-funded health care programs for surgical work when he was actually elsewhere in the state, his attorney, John Smith of Louisville, has said.

        FBI agents have interviewed surgery staff members at the University of Louisville, where Mr. Henry is on staff. But neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney's Office has commented on the investigation.

        Mr. Henry denied any wrongdoing in the interview, but he would not elaborate.

        Without naming anyone, however, Mr. Henry — who has been pondering a run for governor in 2003 — said the allegations are being made by political foes.

        “If you're a political opponent, there is only one way to deal with Heather and I ... getting married, and that is you try to minimalize it, you try to criticize it, you do anything you can to attack the couple,” he said.

        “That's the only political strategy they have,” Mr. Henry said. “And I think they've been very effective at trying to do that.”

        Paul Blanchard, a political science professor at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, said if Mr. Henry is indicted, “he is pretty much dead” politically.

        But, Mr. Blanchard continued, “if he can turn this around, he would increasingly be considered a viable candidate for governor.”

        Part of Mr. Henry's appeal to voters does come from Mrs. Henry and her celebrity, her personality, her Kentucky roots and her ability to connect with people.

        Her political and people skills were on display in November, when Mr. and Mrs. Henry came to Latonia to attend a state Senate campaign rally for Democrat Jaimie Henson of Independence.

        Mrs. Henson lost to Republican incumbent Jack Westwood, but Mrs. Henry impressed people when she worked the crowd and shook nearly every hand in a packed American Legion Hall.

        “She is very good,” Crescent Springs Democrat Michelle Keller said at the rally. “She needs to be a candidate herself someday.”

        Mrs. Henry was approached by several leading Democrats, including Gov. Paul Patton, about running last year for the Statehouse seat of the late Rep. Pete Worthington, a Fleming County lawmaker who died in an Oct. 7 car crash in Mason County.

        But for now she wants to continue her work as an advocate for veterans affairs. Her father, Ronnie, whom she calls her inspiration, is a disabled Vietnam War veteran. Mrs. French travels across the country promoting causes and attention for veterans.

        She was in Washington in early March to help members of Congress introduce the Heather French Henry Homeless Veterans Assistance Act. The legislation, which has not been voted on, would provide $34 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs' homeless programs.

        Her high profile and his political ambitions cause some to draw comparisons between the Henrys and former Gov. John Y. Brown Jr.

        Mr. Brown, a businessman who was governor from 1979 to 1983, was also married to a former Miss America, Phyllis George. There have even been some suggestions that the Henrys have a marriage of convenience with the goal of winning the governor's race.

        The couple bristle at such talk.

        “I never in my wildest dreams married him because of his political aspirations,” Mrs. Henry said. “Especially going through what we've been through. Why would you?

        “There is no fame, no glamour, no money in politics,” she said. “But we believe in public service, including community service.”

        Mr. Henry said that throughout the investigations and questions about their relationship, the couple have talked of getting out of politics.

        “Sometimes we are very comfortable with that,” he said. “So I think that dispels any of those things being said.

        “But when you start talking about those who fight to follow you in office, then suddenly you get your enthusiasm back up,” he said.

        After spending six years in the lieutenant governor's office, Mr. Henry said, “I feel I have a better handle than anyone else on the governor's office.”

        Other Democrats considering running in the 2003 gubernatorial primary include former Gov. Brereton Jones, House Speaker Jody Richards, Attorney General Ben Chandler and Louisville businessman and party activist Charlie Owen.

        Mr. and Mrs. Henry admit the circumstances of their public life have been stressful but insist they haven't put a strain on their relationship.

        “All of this adversity has made us stronger,” Mr. Henry said. “We're just anxious to have our little baby girl.”

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