Fast confession – Jiří Paroubek: Revealed When He’ll Show His New Partner

When looking you up online, the most frequent hits include tags such as “politician” and “sexy brain”. But how would you characterize yourself? Who is Jiří Paroubek?

I don’t like labeling people, because it never reveals the whole picture – in fact it says very little about a person. When I was in politics, I understood these labels. Journalists and colleagues usually use labels or abbreviations to characterize you, to make their work easier, but now I think that it’s really unnecessary. I’d say that Jiří Paroubek is someone who’s living his life – and trying to live it as well as possible.

So, how do you live it? What do you do? You’re not in a suit today…

I’m not in a suit because it would be impractical. I’m leaving for the next part of my vacation soon – and so I’ve in fact been wearing mostly T-shirts in the past weeks. I don’t usually wear suits during the holiday season. And what do I do? Well, I try to stay fit. I exercise two, two and a half hours a day, and in addition I also run. When I recently visited southern France, I also spent a lot of time swimming – two to three hours per day. I do my best to keep my body moving about five hours per day.

That’s quite a lot.

It’s a lot, but I think it’s also necessary for me to stay in good shape.

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It’s often said that when you lose weight and start doing sports, you also gain a lot of confidence. Can you confirm?

I guess a lack of confidence was never one of my problems.

I guess that’s a given in politics.

Well, people who are not confident suffer – in fact, not only they, but also the political party they represent. That’s the case of Sobotka, who basically has no confidence. But in fact I don’t know whether it’s just confidence, but I also do my best to look healthy.

In any case it’s a big change. Do you know how much weight you lost since you changed your lifestyle?

I started sometime last February and lost about 18 kilos. I don’t just do those Chinese exercises… I also made a commitment over the holidays to do strengthening exercises every day in order to strengthen my abdominal muscles. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it all plays a role – as does my younger girlfriend.

So you confirm the speculations we’ve heard over the past days. Do you have a new girlfriend?

I don’t want to say more, but the rumors indeed keep on coming. I don’t think it’s the right time to introduce anyone publicly yet.

I’m only asking because you mentioned it on your own.

I meant it rather on a general level – that men are always influenced by women. Petra had a good influence on me – as far as sports and health go – and it seems that my new girlfriend has an even better one now.

How come she has an even better influence? It is because the relationship is still in its early days?

I don’t want to comment on that. Maybe she’s just trying harder (laughter).

And when will you want to speak about her?

When she says she wants that.

And she doesn’t want that now?

I‘ve known her for years, and even though I haven’t seen her for years I still know what she’s like – and the same also holds vice-versa. And regarding the ideas I have about my girlfriend or partner, those are still the same.

And that means…?

I want her to be loyal, faithful – traits which Petra lacked. I want her to have deep affection for me, and to deserve deep affection from me. She should also be pretty, I should find her attractive. She doesn’t have to be spotlessly beautiful like Petra, that’s not what life is about. She should share a lot of interests with me. Those were always my ideas of what a girlfriend should be like, and they’re unlikely to change now.

You mentioned appearance. As far as your girlfriends go, how do you rank beauty and intelligence – which is more important?

I don’t think I can answer that, but I do like it if my girlfriend keeps working on herself. Just like I do my best to keep working on myself – I expect my girlfriend to do the same. I never had to tell Petra – she knew how to take care of herself. Perhaps too well.

So you’re not the kind of guy who would want to have that kind of woman home, you know the kind that’s just a “fashion accessory” for her man.

Definitely not. I do acknowledge that it can be pleasant for a while (laughter), but I also need to start thinking about the future. I mean, now I’m in perfect health, or at least I think so, but I should have a partner who can take care of me when I’m old. But I do hope that there’s still plenty of good years left before that. Petra was neither able nor willing to do that.

And about Petra, what’s your relationship like now? To me it would seem you’re not exactly on good terms.

How can you be on good terms with a wife who suddenly leaves, after ten years of a harmonic relationship, and on the same day in the evening sends attorney after you with abhorrent requests, and in addition you later realize that she has an extramarital relationship, is always surrounded by bodyguards, and also uses bodyguards for your daughter. That’s hard to forget, and I’m going to keep that in mind as far as our future relationship goes.

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And you were faithful for the whole duration of your marriage?

Indeed, I actually tried to make it work and was faithful for the whole ten years of marriage.

When did your new relationship begin?

The relationship I have now started when a woman called me, similarly as tens of other people called me when Petra left me. Everyone who called knew what she meant for me and what family means for me. Petra took my family from me, and I think that’s not something you can easily dismiss. Family is very important for me.

Who called you, for instance?

Mr. Kalousek turned out to be a great person – even though I had very large disagreements with him during my political career. This is maybe the second or third time that I realized that he’s someone who cares about others even though we were “enemies” in the political sense. Other than that, a large number of those who contacted me were women. It was good that they did, because women are important for life. I was happy that I could speak with someone – and I really mean just speak, not anything else (laughter), because as far as conversation goes, with women it’s entirely different than with men.

As far as women go, were there those who cheered and were happy that you’re finally single and available?

They must have noticed that I was mostly thinking about Petra at that time, so I wasn’t in a hurry. Of course my first priority was to save my relationship with Petra, and during those five months I must have offered her to come back maybe fifty times. She always refused me with arrogance, in an insulting manner and very unpleasantly. So I made conclusions based on that. She still has some theoretical possibility, but I don’t think she’ll make use of that, and so I’ll let her live her life the way she wants to. After the holidays, I’ll have a completely different perspective than before. I was the one who was interested in keeping the family together, she was the one who left, she left from the home we built together, from our family life which was exceptionally beautiful, and she asked for a divorce due to reasons which are very unclear to me. Even though I actually do understand that to some degree, it’s because of her extramarital affair… but still, you can’t delete the ten years we had together over just a few months. A bit over two years ago she had a massive intracranial hemorrhage. Her psychological state was very fragile, and that was a problem she had all the way from her young years. When I saw the images which showed the whole brain covered in blood, well, of course that could change her psychology even further for the worse. What happened during the last weeks before she left from our home, that would not happen if Petra was healthy.

There are many speculations about the reasons for the divorce. Petra’s affair, or the abuse of your daughter by you. What was your first reaction?

Petra doesn’t know what she’s doing. It’s due to her disturbed psychology. The stuff you see in tabloids, well, I’d take it all with a grain of salt. Of course at first I may be angry to read some of the claims – but at least they’re no longer saying that I was psychologically abusing her. That’s complete nonsense and everyone knows that. So now she’s playing another game. But basically I don’t care anymore.

You said that you’ll make a stand against all of that. Does that mean you want to get custody of Margarita?

We are forbidden from discussing this in the media and I don’t want to get into problems, I don’t want to give Petra any ammunition for the court hearings that will come in autumn. I don’t want them to say that I broke my word.

As far as relations go, you said a lot of women contacted you. Was the one you’re seeing now also among them?

Yes.

Did she help you overcome your predicament?

It would be a lie if I denied that (laughter). Basically, it raises the question of whether I didn’t make a mistake when choosing my girlfriend ten years ago.

But then you wouldn’t have your daughter.

Well, yes I guess you’re right.

Even though you’re not divorced yet, one could say that you’ve seen the end of two marriages. Do you think you’ll ever try your luck for a third time?

We’ll see about that. I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I guess I’m quite conservative though, and so I do have a certain preference for marriage, but I also need to say that not all women are conservative (laughter). But I do think that both of those marriages were mostly good and happy. With Zuzana we maintain excellent relations to this day. That’s why I’m so disgusted by the current attacks against her that I’ve seen in tabloids. Petra in fact wrote to Zuzana: “Well, Zuzana, now we’re both on the same boat. He lied to me for twelve years, just like he did to you all those years before…”, but Zuzana replied that she doesn’t believe that I’d ever be unfaithful to her, which ended that conversation.

How is it possible that your second wife is looking for comfort at your first one?

I don’t think she was looking for comfort. She was probably just searching for someone who she could take to court to show that I’m exactly the kind of asshole that she’s trying to portray me as. But I think she’ll have a hard time searching for someone like that, aside from her girlfriends. A reasonable person won’t take her seriously.

What did she mean when she said you lied to her?

An article by her friend, an editor of Blesk (a Czech tabloid), claimed that I’ve had an affair with the woman I’ve been on vacation with – and for no less than ten years. But that’s nonsense! Petra is very jealous and careful as far as these things go, she wouldn’t miss that. Such a thing would not be possible even if I were to want it, even if she were to want it.

If I ignore the worries around your divorce and Petra, could one say that better times are ahead?

I always maintain an optimistic view of life and do my best to forget things which aren’t nice. Even though I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that as far as Petra is concerned. That went over a certain limit of what I’m willing to forget.

What are your current plans?

What happened really hit me. I lost my motivation for work, but I think it’s slowly coming back to me now. I’d now like to focus on English, Germany, basically to perfect my skills. With Petra that wasn’t really possible. She can speak perfect English, but unfortunately never really supported me (in that area) as a partner. But today I have more confidence, now that she’s not with me. Friends now tell me: “Now your English is excellent – and not only you can speak, but you can also understand.” (laughter) She basically made me feel incompetent… and that’s not very pleasant when you’re the partner of such a person. But it’s not good for her either, to artificially boost her confidence that way. She doesn’t need that. She’s smart, but unfortunately she has no social intelligence. So when she finds a new partner, I’d advise her to avoid doing those stupid things with him.