Who were Steve Bannon’s ex-wives Cathleen, Mary & Diane and when did the former Trump strategist divorce them?

STEVE Bannon is a former advisor and campaign CEO to Donald Trump, who was handed a four-month prison sentence in July 2024 for contempt of Congress.

The recently released politico has been married three times and has welcomed three children, but each relationship has ended in divorce.

Bannon’s early life

Bannon was born on November 27, 1953, in Norfolk, Virginia to a working-class family that was pro-Kennedy and pro-Democrat. 

After graduating from Benedictine College Preparatory and then Virginia Tech, with a masters degree in Urban Planning, he decided to join the navy.

In 1977, he began serving as an officer in the Navy before serving as a special assistant to the chief of naval operations at the Pentagon. 

In 1980, he assisted with Operation Eagle Claw which was a failed operation to rescue 53 American diplomats and citizens who were held hostage in the American embassy in Tehran. 

Bannon says that the failure of the operation converted him into a Reaganite which was reinforced by the September 11 attacks in 2001. 

After leaving the military, he became an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and later formed his own company Bannon & CO where he accepted a financial stake in the hit TV show Seinfeld. 

Bannon still receives cash residuals every time that the show airs.

Three whirlwind marriages

Bannon has been married three times throughout his life, but the journalist and podcaster has kept much of his personal life quiet.

His first wife was Cathleen Houff Jordan but little is known about her except for the fact that she gave birth to Bannon’s first child, named Maureen. 

Bannon’s second wife was an investment banker named Mary Louise Piccard who welcomed two children, named Grace and Emily, with Bannon. 

However, their relationship eventually crumbled and they divorced in 1997. 

Bannon married again almost a decade later, in 2006, when he tied the knot with Diane Clohesy. 

Their relationship came to an end too, though, when they divorced in 2009.

Founding Breitbart News

In 2007, he became a founding board member of the far-right website Breitbart News. 

The website has been embroiled in several controversies over the years, including false claims that President Barack Obama supported terrorists and accusations from the New York Times that the publication had claimed that President Obama was not American. 

Bannon eventually became executive chairman of Breitbart’s parent company, but drew criticism from fellow far-right commentator and former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro who said that Bannon was a “bully” who “sold out” the Breitbart mission to “back another bully, Donald Trump”. 

A short-lived stint in the White House

The Breitbart exec was appointed chief executive of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on August 17, 2016, before being promoted to chief strategist and senior counselor to the president-elect after Trump’s victory. 

He left White House only one year and one day after joining Trump’s campaign, after the then-President said that there was blame on “both sides” at a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville which ended in a far-right rally.

The rally had been attended by a far-right, neo-Nazi group named the Proud Boys.

Calls for Bannon to be dismissed as Trump’s counsel and strategist grew following the rally and he eventually decided to leave the White House and return to Breitbart News.

Prison sentence

Bannon was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress in 2024. 

One count was related to his refusal to sit for a deposition with the January 6 House Committee, which was investigating the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021. 

The second count related to his refusal to hand over documents related to Trump’s attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. 

Bannon’s prison sentence began in July 2024 and he was eventually released on October 29, 2024, just a week before America chooses between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to serve as President of the United States.