Womack and Roehm have previously denied the charges, but each fell silent last week. Roehm’s lawyers decried Wal-Mart’s “smear tactic” and said the e-mails are quoted out of context. And Roehm’s husband, Mike, in his first interview about the scandal, defended his wife to NEWSWEEK. Julie realized the Wal-Mart job was a bad fit almost immediately, he says. “I could tell just by the way she was sleeping at night—she was like a flounder flopping all over the place.” Still, the couple tried to make their move to Arkansas work: they bought a nice home with a pool, and had co-workers—including Sean and his wife, Shelley—over for frequent parties. Mike says Julie assumed Wal-Mart was being billed for meals she accepted, and he believes there was nothing unusual about the ad agency’s wanting to hire her. “She has people talking to her all the time,” he says. Mike shrugged off rumors of a Julie-Sean affair; he’d faced similar rumors about himself earlier in his career. Mike hasn’t read the lawsuit, but he’s resolute: “Point blank, I asked Julie. I asked Sean. I know it wasn’t going on.”
Since Julie was fired from her $325,000-a-year position, Mike says the couple has been living off retirement accounts and their children’s college funds. (In December Roehm sued for wrongful termination.) As for Wal-Mart’s advertising, new TV spots will launch in early to mid-April.
