 McCain and his wife Carol had been briefly separated soon after returning to Washington , but then reunited and remained married . In April 1979 , while attending a military reception for senators in Hawaii , McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley , eighteen years his junior , a teacher from Phoenix , Arizona and the daughter of James Willis Hensley , a wealthy Anheuser @-@ Busch beer distributor , and Marguerite " Smitty " Hensley . They began dating , travelling between Arizona and Washington to see each other , and John McCain urged his wife Carol to accept a divorce . The McCains stopped cohabiting in January 1980 , and John McCain filed for divorce in February , which Carol McCain accepted at that time . After she did not respond to court summonses , the uncontested divorce became official in Fort Walton Beach , Florida , on April 2 , 1980 . McCain gave Carol a settlement that included full custody of their children , alimony , child support including college tuition , houses in Virginia and Florida , and lifelong financial support for her ongoing medical treatments resulting from the 1969 automobile accident ; they would remain on good terms . McCain and Hensley were married on May 17 , 1980 in Phoenix , with Senators William Cohen and Gary Hart as best man and <unk> . McCain 's children were upset with him and did not attend the wedding , but after several years they reconciled with him and Cindy . Carol McCain became a personal assistant to Nancy Reagan and later Director of the White House Visitors Office . The Reagans were stunned by the divorce ; Nancy Reagan 's relationship with John McCain turned cold for a while following it , but eventually the two renewed their friendship . The same happened with most of McCain 's other friends , who were eventually won over by the force of his personality and his frequent expressions of guilt over what had happened . 
