Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley’s wife, Leslie Fahrenkopf, was hospitalized Friday after going into premature labor in her 20th week of pregnancy. The baby did not survive.
“The baby was lost Friday evening after a 19.5 week pregnancy,” the campaign announced in a brief statement Saturday. “Leslie is in the Intensive Care Unit at Greenwich Hospital. She is expected to return home in several days.”
The statement did not address how long Foley, the front runner in a three-way race for the GOP nomination, would suspend campaigning. The primary is Aug. 10.
The campaign said that Foley’s wife was originallly hospitalized in Greenwhich, where the couple live, on July 6 after an ultrasound showed her at risk for carrying the pregnancy to term.
She was transferred to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital five days later for a procedure to help extend the pregnancy. It was performed Tuesday and she returned home Wednesday.
But she began experiencing contractions and went to Greenwich Hospital al at 4 a.m. Friday.
Last year, Foley, then 57, married Fahrenkopf, then 41, a lawyer for the News Corporation and a former associate White House counsel during the administration of George W. Bush.
In recent weeks, Foley had talked publicly about how he was looking forward to become a father for the second time. He has a college-age son from his previous marriage.
His wife is the daughter of Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., the president and chief executive officer of the American Gaming Association and a former Republican national chairman under Ronald Reagan.