The Shady Rumor That Swirled Amid Sen. Chris Murphy's Separation From His Wife

Senator Chris Murphy has spent well over a decade serving the people of Connecticut, which means he's likely all too familiar with how affair rumors tend to haunt prominent politicians. Unfortunately, Murphy found himself a hot topic of discussion after he and his wife, Cathy Holahan, announced their separation in November 2024, and he was spotted getting cozy with another woman barely four months later. Complicating matters, the lady in question was Courier Newsroom publisher Tara McGowan. An eagle-eyed witness spotted the duo enjoying a meal together and shared a photograph of them with the New York Post in March 2025. The reason this set tongues wagging was because Murphy was reportedly still married to Holahan at the time. Oof.

It didn't help that there was a lengthy record of McGowan giving favorable press to the senator, and that she had divorced her own husband in 2024 (McGowan initially filed for divorce in 2023 and prior to this heaped praise on Murphy's policies on her account on X, formerly known as Twitter). Considering this information, it should come as no surprise that netizens smelled a rat. The publisher practically confirmed that she knew she was technically having an affair with Murphy upon posting a loved-up snap of the two of them on her private Instagram account in March 2025. 

Unfortunately, one of McGowan's followers shared it with Semafor, and notably, they also revealed that she had captioned the snap: "Not postponing joy." Murphy had an easy win when he faced off against Republican Matthew Corey for re-election in 2024. Looking back, though, this smooth victory may or may not have had something to do with McGowan lending a helping hand by using her influence in the media landscape. While there's no law against this, it still isn't a good look.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt used the 2025 government shutdown to give her dated style a spicy upgrade, while President Donald Trump humiliated Vice President JD Vance in a government shutdown meeting. Senator Chris Murphy, meanwhile, took to X to criticize the president's conduct. "The shutdown is fun for Trump because he gets to throw lavish Gatsby-themed parties for his millionaire friends AND invent new and innovative ways to hurt poor people," he penned at the time. Unfortunately, the senator's association with Tara McGowan came back to bite him at this very moment. In July 2025, she sent an email to her company's donors and some Democrats pleading for more money to help Courier Newsroom reach a bigger audience, noting that she was trying to reach more right-leaning readers. 

The contents of the email were detailed by Semafor, and some saw the message as proof that McGowan had no interest in journalistic integrity, instead preferring to use her platform to promote the Democratic agenda. The scandal negatively impacted Murphy too, with one skeptic replying to his criticism of the government shutdown with screenshots of the Semafor article, writing alongside it, "Here's Tara McGowan, the progressive media CEO whom Chris Murphy left his wife of 17 years for, begging for $2 million in a week because she 'ran out of funding.'" 

Likewise, the senator was also criticized over his romance with the media mogul in June 2025 when he called Trump and his cronies "fundamentally immoral" for wanting to cut Medicaid funding during a CNN interview. This prompted one netizen to quip, "Funny: @ChrisMurphyCT, who just left his family for his girlfriend, lecturing on 'morality.'" Needless to say, his relationship with McGowan has proven distracting.