In October 1967, McCain’s plane was shot down and he was captured by the North Vietnamese. Carol McCain became active in the POW-MIA movement. A former model, she dedicated herself to her children and kept the family together, friends said, while awaiting his return. “She had the perseverance to carry on,” said Melinda Fitzwater, a cousin of McCain’s who later worked with Carol McCain at the White House. “She had a little baby and small kids. She was a great, unique person.”
On Christmas Eve 1969, while she was driving alone in Philadelphia, Carol McCain’s car skidded and struck a utility pole. Thrown into the snow, she broke both legs, an arm and her pelvis. She was operated on a dozen times, and in the treatment she lost about 5 inches in height.
After John McCain was released in March 1973 and returned to the U.S., he told friends that Carol was not the woman he had married.
While on a trip as a Navy liaison with the Senate, McCain spied Hensley at the Honolulu reception. In a television interview with Jay Leno on the “Tonight Show,” Cindy McCain joked about how the Navy captain had pursued her. “He kind of chased me around … the hors d’oeuvre table,” (This is the disabled veteran, ha,ha) she said. “I was trying to get something to eat and I thought, ‘This guy’s kind of weird.’ I was kind of trying to get away from him.” John McCain was 42; she was 24.
Carol McCain was distraught at being blindsided by her husband’s intention to end their marriage, said her friends in the Reagan circle.“They [the Reagans] weren’t happy with him,” Carol McCain “was this little, frail person… . She was brokenhearted.” “Nancy Reagan was crazy about her,” Reynolds said. “But everybody was crazy about Carol McCain… . And the Meeses were very generous and helpful and comforting to her.” About all she has ever said is this to McCain biographer Robert Timberg: “John was turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again.”
“My divorce from Carol, whom the Reagans loved, caused a change in our relationship. Nancy … was particularly upset with me and treated me on the few occasions we encountered each other after I came to Congress with a cool correctness that made her displeasure clear. “I had, of course, deserved the change in our relationship.”

McCain's views on women haven't changed much. A least he didn't bring in a waitress from Hooters as a VP candidate. Now that would be colorful! Come to think of it, most of the Hooter girls are more intelligent as well!