Mitt Romney’s sons recall their own antics in Mother’s Day video, leave out his pranks

By Callum Borchers

May 13, 2012

2 minutes to read

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The Romney campaign on Sunday released a Mother’s Day video tribute to the candidate’s wife, Ann, a stay-at-home mom who reared the couple’s five boys.

While the four-minute video features all five Romney sons praising their mother’s patience and love, in spite of their boisterousness, it does not include comments from Mitt Romney or any stories about the presumptive Republican nominee’s rambunctious behavior.

That contrasts sharply with the family-themed video released by the campaign last month, which showed Ann Romney recounting the challenge of raising “six boys.’’

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“He would be as mischievous and as naughty as the other boys,’’ she says in the April video, referring her husband. “He’d come home and everything would just explode again, and that’s the kind of energy that he’d bring home and just get them all riled up again and, you know, wrestling and throwing balls and just being a kid himself.’’

“There were a lot of pranks, a lot of pranks,’’ she adds.

A month later, the campaign is no longer highlighting Mitt Romney’s pranks, after The Washington Post reported Thursday that as a teenager Romney bullied a gay schoolmate. Romney and a band of boys once attacked a gay student in a dormitory at the private boarding school they attended, pinning him to the floor while Romney cut the student’s bleached-blond hair, according to the report.

Romney said he does not recall the incident but issued a broad apology, saying, “I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks in high school and some may have gone too far, and for that I apologize.’’

The Mother’s Day video is packed with grainy, home-movie footage and old family photographs. The Romney sons recall wrestling, building forts, and coating Craig, the youngest, in Marshmallow Fluff.

“I don’t think she let them watch me for a while after that,’’ Craig Romney says.

The sons describe Ann Romney as “an authentic person’’ and “very easy to talk to.’’

“She’s one of those people that just loves to talk to people, get to know what their struggles are, what they’re going through, especially having been through so much herself, with her MS and cancer, and the other things she’s been through in her life,’’ Josh Romney says. “But even before she went through those things, she’s always just been really incredibly compassionate and caring about people.’’

Mitt Romney wished his wife a happy Mother’s Day in separate statement.

“On Mother’s Day, I’ve been giving Ann lilacs every year since our first son was born. She has written so movingly about this tradition and what it means to be a mother in USA Today,’’ Romney said, referring to a piece published last Wednesday. “As a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a son, I have had many wonderful women influence my life. When all is said and done, there’s nothing more important than our families. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful one.’’