Hurling James Roosevelt's wartime confessions of adultery back at him, his wife is suing for separate maintenance on accusations he was intimate with a dozen women.
Mrs. Roosevelt's action includes a copy of a letter to her from Roosevelt in 1945 in which he admits "a succession of active adultery" and lists nine women with whom he said he had had improper conduct.
Mrs. Richard C. Durant (Jayne Shadduck), 38, wife of a Honolulu surgeon, and mother of five children, commented on Roosevelt's reference to relations in 1943-44.
"If he means me' he's a liar and I'll sue him from here to the North Pole," she declared.
"I demand an immediate retraction, plus a full explanation.
"I met James Roosevelt only very casually.
"He's not what I would regard as a romantic type, and if I saw him on the street I doubt if I would recognise him."
Blonde, statuesque Jayne Durant spoke by radiophone from her terrace breakfast table in Honolulu.
Her husband, 49, whom she married after an elopement on November 14, 1940, was beside her, pouring black coffee.
He is her third husband, and is resident surgeon at two Honolulu hospitals.
She used to be Broadway actress Jayne Shadduck, and an aviatrix.
Her first husband was playwright Jack Kirkland (who adapted the book Tobacco Road for the stage), and her second was millionaire Henry J. Topping, jnr.