”I`ve dated them all-tall, short, medium and giant. Everything but fat. And the bottom line is, all that really matters is their brains,” says fashion designer Carolyne Roehm, who married Henry Kravis, the small arbitrager with the big financial mind.
These days, big-deal couples often look more like Boris and Natasha than Rhett and Scarlett. And today`s tall women are more likely to own up to the height difference than hide it. The ladies have finally stopped slouching, and their husbands no longer wear lifts.
”Often people marry with the hope that their spouse will make up for some deficiency in themselves,” explains psychologist Ann Kearney-Cooke.
”These men may see their wives as an extension of themselves, as compensation for their own lack of height.”
But these mixed marriages are hardly a new phenomenon. Think Napoleon and Josephine, for example, or Mickey Rooney-all eight of his wives towered over his 5-foot-3-inch frame. Now, though, these couples are more visible than ever.
”I`ve always been taller than everyone,” explains socialite Pat Buckley, who is 5 feet 11 inches. ”My father use to say, `Put on your highest heels when you go out, and stand up straight.` ”
Shorter than her husband, Bill, who`s 6 feet 1 inch, Buckley says ”you`d never know it. I took my father`s words quite seriously and I always wear 4-or 5-inch heels.”
Them`s fightin` words
”You`d never get me to give up my high heels,” says Roehm. ”And Henry would never ask me to. We joke about our height difference. We`re rather like our dogs-I`m the female Labrador and he`s the wiry terrier.”
Roberta Jaeger, a psychoanalyst, says ”tall and thin seem to be the current notion of beauty. Perhaps these shorter men like to be with highly visible tall women because height is one thing you can`t fake. Over time you can tighten the face but you can`t change someone`s height.”
But some sensitivity is needed. ”Every short man asks his wife to wear flats, no matter how much he may deny it,” says agent-to-the-stars Irving
”Swifty” Lazar, who looks up to his wife, Mary.
If you wonder how some of these odd couples ever started courting, the answer seems to be that love is blind. ”When I first met Harry, he was wearing a 10-gallon hat, so I just didn`t notice the difference,” explains Roehm.
”Taller is just better,” says Lazar. ”I`ve always been attracted to taller women. Besides, the male ego takes care of any height difference.” –
