Did Rob Ford Hit His Wife?

There’s been yet another development in the saga of Rob Ford, but there’s nothing funny about this one. It seems that just under a year ago, police investigated claims that Ford might have beaten his wife, Renata. The cops’ suspicion was stirred after they were called to resolve a dispute between a drunken Renata and a cab driver, with whom she’d become belligerent. When police arrived, Renata had “bruises and cuts to her limbs and face that appeared to be a few days old,” according to the Toronto Star, yet refused to say where they’d come from. When police attempted to follow up a few days later, she was “not cooperative.”

This wasn’t the first time something like that had happened, either. In 2008, police responded to a domestic disturbance call at Ford’s house. There are conflicting reports over whether it was Renata or her husband who called the cops, but the end result was that Ford was charged with assault and threatening death. Prosecutors ultimately withdrew the charges, though, as there were “inconsistencies” in Renata’s testimony.

Renata rarely appears publicly. But when Ford addressed the other new allegations against him yesterday—it’s getting a bit hard to keep track of them all—he brought his wife along, and made sure she was standing by his side when he announced that he wouldn’t be resigning.