Barbara Bush was so devastated and humiliated over George's affair with aide she considered suicide

Former First Lady and family matriarch Barbara Bush was once described as 'a silver-haired pearl draped howitzer'.

But a combination of blows in her life in the mid-seventies sent her spiraling into a depression that almost led to her taking her own life.

Among the causes of her despair was a woman who would stay by her husband George's side for more than 12 years.

Her name was Jennifer Fitzgerald and she was his aide – and according to some, his mistress, reveals Susan Page, author of The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty out next Tuesday.

Returning from a post in Beijing, China as chief of the US Liaison Office under President Gerald Ford, Barbara recalled the dizzying year as the best of times.

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