Lindsay Mills

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Lindsay Mills
Born (1985-02-20) February 20, 1985 (age 39)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Blogger, Gymnast
Known forMarriage to Edward Snowden
Spouse
​
(m. 2017)​
[1]
Websitewww.lsjourney.com

Lindsay Mills (born February, 1985) is an American acrobat and blogger.[2] She came to international attention as the then-girlfriend of Edward Snowden in 2013 at the time of the global surveillance disclosures. Mills left the United States to join Snowden in exile in Moscow by October 2014.[3] They married in 2017.[1]

Before the global surveillance disclosures

Mills' father Jonathan Mills lives in Laurel, Maryland.[4] She studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and would later become a dancer and acrobat.[5]

Mills and Edward Snowden lived together in Baltimore, Japan, and Hawaii.[6] They have been together at least since 2009.[6]

Mills kept a blog in which she posted pictures of herself posing and performing.[7] On 20 May 2013 Snowden left Hawaii for Hong Kong and told her that he was going on a business trip.[8]

On Thursday, June 6, 2013, agents from the National Security Agency searched Mills' home seeking Snowden.[9] On Sunday, June 9, 2013, The Guardian published a story revealing that Snowden had done the global surveillance disclosures.[9] On June 10, 2013, Mills wrote on her website, "I'll be refraining from blog posts for awhile" then deleted all posts within a day.[10] Mills was shocked to learn what Snowden had done.[11] On her personal blog, she wrote: "I feel alone, lost, overwhelmed, and desperate for a reprieve".[7]

After the global surveillance disclosures

Mills became the focus of a media sensation after the global surveillance disclosures her identification as Snowden's girlfriend.[12] One media outlet called Mills, "the girlfriend Edward Snowden left behind".[5] In 2013 Buzzfeed reviewed Mills' personal blog.[5] It noted that she had a boyfriend whom she called "E" and her "man of mystery".[5] Mills blogged about Snowden leaving soon after he left.[13]

After Snowden left Hawaii reporters sought to question members of the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe for insight into Mills and Snowden's relationship.[14] Newsworthy comments reported from that interview included, "I never got to know her", "I wasn't even aware she was in a relationship", and "I have no idea how much pole and other stuff she'd done".[14]

Between June 2013-14 there was no public awareness in the media of any interaction between Mills and Snowden.[15] The public did not know where Mills lived after June 2013.[16] By January 2014 Mills had not spoken to the media for seven months.[17] Mills' father shared that she was trying to make sense of what had happened and plan for her future.[17]

Later, the Citizenfour documentary included a scene which showed Snowden and Mills reunited in Moscow.[15] This reveal in October 2014 was the first indication in the media that they were still dating.[15][16] The information that Mills and Snowden were together and happy was surprising because until the documentary, popular media supporting the U.S. government had reported that Snowden's life in Russia was a miserable punishment.[3]

Mills and Glenn Greenwald joined director Laura Poitras on stage at the 87th Academy Awards to accept the Academy Award for Citizenfour.[18] In September 2016 one reporter described the Oscar showing as "Mills' most notable public appearance".[19] In Citizenfour, Mills appears for a few seconds cooking with Snowden in the Moscow apartment which they share.[16] Mills took one of the three statues awarded in ceremony.[20] Reflecting on the experience of being on stage to receive the statue for Snowden, Mills later commented, "We won a motherfucking Oscar!"[20]

In March 2015 Mills revived her blog and made two posts which a writer for Jezebel described as "mysterious".[15]

For Halloween 2015, Mills posted pictures of herself with her boyfriend in Halloween costume as Carmen Sandiego and Wally of Where's Wally?.[21][22] Both popular fictional characters are known for hiding.[21][22] In the photo Mills and Snowden are posing in front of the J. Edgar Hoover Building but presumably this is photo manipulation because they supposedly remain in Russia.[21][22]

Permanent Record, Snowden's 2019 book, features Mills' writings from her diary as part of the narrative of the surveillance disclosures.[23]

Public image

Mills has a history of being highly active in new media publishing, including social media, blogging, and video sharing.[24] Her father described her as artistic, free and open, and the opposite of Edward Snowden.[17]

A reviewer for The New Yorker described Mills' blog as "a mixture of chatty accounts of Mills’s days in Hawaii, stories of her athletic and pole-dancing feats, descriptions of fun evenings with friends, and declarations of girl power".[2] A writer for The Daily Telegraph described Mills' blog and social media presence as vivid.[17] The character of Lindsay Mills has a prominent place in Snowden, a 2016 dramatization of Snowden's global surveillance disclosure.[25] Director Oliver Stone said that the relationship between Mills and Snowden was an important part of his movie.[26] Actor Shailene Woodley plays Mills in the film.[27] Woodley reported that she had been unable to meet Mills in person before filming, so she had been unable to imitate Mills' own mannerisms.[27] Woodley based the character on information from Mills blog and social media posts.[28]

Snowden has criticized the media's use of sexy pictures to portray Mills.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b MacAskill, Ewen (13 Sep 2019). "'They wanted me gone': Edward Snowden tells of whistleblowing, his AI fears and six years in Russia". The Guardian.
  2. ^ a b Weiss, Sasha (13 June 2013), "We Are All Pole Dancing on the Internet", The New Yorker, retrieved 16 September 2016
  3. ^ a b Greenwald, Glenn (10 October 2014), "Edward Snowden's Girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, Moved to Moscow to Live with Him", The Intercept, retrieved 16 September 2016
  4. ^ Siddique, Haroon (12 June 2013), "Edward Snowden's girlfriend is 'as well as can be expected', says father", The Guardian, retrieved 16 September 2016
  5. ^ a b c d Van Dyke, Michelle Broder; Hall, Ellie (10 June 2013), "This Is Edward Snowden's Girlfriend", BuzzFeed, retrieved 15 September 2016
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Paul (11 June 2013), "Edward Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills: At the moment I feel alone", The Guardian, retrieved 16 September 2016
  7. ^ a b Allen, Nick; Sanchez, Raf (11 June 2013), "Edward Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills 'lost and alone' after whistleblower flees to Hong Kong", The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 16 September 2016
  8. ^ Greenwald, Glenn; MacAskill, Laura; Poitras (11 June 2013), "Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations", The Guardian, retrieved 16 September 2016
  9. ^ a b Greenwald, Glenn (11 May 2014), "Glenn Greenwald: Here's What Happened On The Day We Revealed Snowden's Identity", Business Insider, retrieved 16 September 2016
  10. ^ LaGanga, Maria L. (11 June 2013), "NSA leaker's girlfriend posts about her shock, goes silent", The Baltimore Sun, retrieved 16 September 2016
  11. ^ Leonnig, Carol D.; Tate, Julie (11 June 2013), "Snowden's girlfriend — dancer, nature lover — said to be shocked by his actions", The Washington Post, retrieved 16 September 2016
  12. ^ Gray, Emma (12 June 2013), "Lindsay Mills, Edward Snowden's Girlfriend, Becomes An Internet Sensation: 6 Ridiculous Things That Have Been Said About Her", The Huffington Post, retrieved 16 September 2016
  13. ^ CNN staff (June 12, 2013). "NSA leaker's girlfriend says she's 'lost at sea'". CNN. {{cite web}}: |author1= has generic name (help)
  14. ^ a b La Ganga, Maria L. (13 June 2013), "Lindsay Mills and other pole dancers missing in action", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 15 September 2016
  15. ^ a b c d Ryan, Erin Gloria (12 March 2015), "Edward Snowden's Girlfriend Posts Two Mysterious New Blog Entries", Jezebel, retrieved 15 September 2016
  16. ^ a b c Birquelet, Kate (11 October 2014), "Girlfriend Snowden 'left' lives with him in Moscow", New York Post, retrieved 16 September 2016
  17. ^ a b c d Sanchez, Raf (17 January 2014). "Edward Snowden completely abandoned girlfriend, says her father". The Daily Telegraph.
  18. ^ Makarechi, Kia (February 22, 2015), "Yes, That Was Edward Snowden's Girlfriend at the Oscars", Vanity Fair, Condé Nast, retrieved 15 September 2016
  19. ^ Brayson, Johnny (14 September 2016), "Where Is Lindsey Mills Now? Edward Snowden's Girlfriend Has A Busy Life", Bustle, retrieved 15 September 2016
  20. ^ a b Dowd, Kathy Ehrich (6 September 2016), "5 Things to Know About Edward Snowden's Girlfriend Lindsay Mills and Their Life Together Now", People, retrieved 16 September 2016
  21. ^ a b c ABC NEWS (30 October 2015), "See Edward Snowden's Halloween Costume", abcnews.go.com, retrieved 16 September 2016
  22. ^ a b c Nguyen, Tina (November 4, 2015), "Edward Snowden's Halloween Costume Is Too Real", Vanity Fair, Condé Nast, retrieved 16 September 2016
  23. ^ Hopkins, Nick (14 September 2019). "Permanent Record by Edward Snowden review – the whistleblower's memoir". The Guardian.
  24. ^ Coscarelli, Joe (11 June 2013), "Edward Snowden's Girlfriend Is a Pole-Dancing Acrobat With a Dramatic Blog", New York, retrieved 16 September 2016
  25. ^ Phillips, Michael (15 September 2016), "'Snowden' review: A conventional, even tame take on former NSA employee", Chicago Tribune
  26. ^ Stone, Oliver; Open Road Films (15 September 2016), "Oliver Stone Talks Snowden's Relationship with Lindsay Mills - SNOWDEN LIVE", Open Road Films YouTube channel, Open Road Films, retrieved 16 September 2016
  27. ^ a b Topel, Fred (14 September 2016), Snowden Roundtable: Shailene Woodley On The Real Lindsay Mills, retrieved 16 September 2016
  28. ^ online editors (30 August 2016), "Shailene Woodley: 'I stalked Edward Snowden's girlfriend online'", Belfast Telegraph, retrieved 16 September 2016 {{citation}}: |author= has generic name (help)/
  29. ^ Russian, Ale (15 September 2016), "Edward Snowden Slams Reporters – Running Sexy Photos of My Girlfriend Wasn't Fair", People, retrieved 16 September 2016

External links

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