Ann Romney

Ann Lois Romney (née Davies; born April 16, 1949) is the wife of American businessman and politician, Mitt Romney. From 2003 to 2007, Romney was First Lady of Massachusetts, while her husband served as Governor. She was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and attended the private Kingswood School there, where she dated Mitt Romney. She converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1966. She attended Brigham Young University (BYU), married Mitt Romney in 1969, and in 1975 received a Bachelor of Arts degree in French. As First Lady of Massachusetts, Romney served as the governor's liaison for federal faith-based initiatives. She was involved in a number of children's charities, including Operation Kids. She was an active participant in her husband's U.S. presidential campaigns in 2008 and again in 2012, when he was the Republican Party nominee. Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 and has credited a mixture of mainstream and alternative treatments with giving her a lifestyle mostly without limitations. In one activity, equestrianism, she has consequently received recognition in dressage as an adult amateur at the national level and competed professionally in Grand Prix as well. In 2008, she was also diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, a non-invasive type of breast cancer. She underwent a lumpectomy in December of the same year and has since been cancer-free. Ann and Mitt Romney have five sons, born between 1970 and 1981, and twenty-three grandchildren.