Edward Snowden's girlfriend is getting a lot of attention in time with NBC's airing of the 'Nightly News' episode that features her whistleblowing boyfriend in a tell-all interview with anchor Brian Williams.
While this is of course, Edward Snowden's first ever interview with a U.S. television network, his girlfriend has had her run in with the press since Snowden's espionage revelations broke. So who is Edward Snowden's girlfriend really? Let's find out.
According to multiple sources, Edward Snowden's girlfriend is Lindsay Mills, a pole-dancer or performance artist as other sources put it, who was left completely "heartbroken" after her boyfriend left her in Hawaii for good. Mills is a graduate of the prestigious Maryland Institute College of Art, and she is even described as "very artistic, free spirit and open" by her father. She reportedly worked for the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe.
It can be noted that Snowden had given up his Hawaiian life with girlfriend Lindsay Milles to disclose classified documents about US surveillance operations. The Telegraph reports that Edward didn't leave any financial provision for his girl when he left for Hong Kong, and instead told Mills that he was simply going on a business trip and would be back after a few weeks.
For the first seven months since the former NSA contractor's leakage of official US surveillance documents, Lindsay Mills hasn't opened up publicly of how she felt about her boyfriend leaving her and managing to hide everything from her.
In an interview with Mill's father, he said that his daughter was still "trying to make sense of everything and come up with a plan for herself." Lindsay's father even revealed that Edward Snowden has not been in contact with his girlfriend since he left for Hong Kong for Russia, where he has been granted temporary asylum.
"He said I'm just going on a trip for business for a couple of weeks and I'll be coming back. She heard what had happened on the news," said Edward Snowden's girlfriend's father. "She was basically left to fend for herself."
According to Lindsay's father, Snowden and his daughter met on an online dating site, and they have been in a romantic relationship since. He even claimed that the two were actually planning their marriage and life together prior to Edward's rendezvous.
In her personal blog and Instagram account, Lindsay Mills wrote, "I don't know what will happen from here. I don't know how to feel normal." Then she added, "My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass." This of course refers to the time when her boyfriend abandoned her all clueless of the real situation.
Additionally, just a few hours after Edward Snowden revealed that he was the source of the leaks, Lindsay Mills wrote on her blog, "Sometimes life doesn't afford proper goodbyes." The Guardian reports that Mills' blog, subtitled "Adventures of a world-traveling, pole-dancing hero" details the former couple's life in Hawaii.
Edward Snowden's girlfriend's blog also features YouTube uploaded videos of her performances, along with a number of still images of her and her now ex-boyfriend.
Edward Snowden and his girlfriend have been in a relationship since 2009, and they have even lived together for a couple of years, showing how serious their shared romance was.
Tonight at 10 p.m., NBC will air Edward Snowden's tell-all interview with Brian Williams, where he will discuss how he ended up leaking the surveillance documents and perhaps mention a thing or two about his life with his girlfriend before all the controversy kicked in. "The reality is I never intended to end up in Russia," Snowden says in a sneak peek to the intriguing episode. "I had a flight booked to Cuba onwards to Latin America and I was stopped because the United States government decided to revoke my passport and trap me in Moscow Airport. So when people ask why are you in Russia, I say, 'Please ask the State Department."
