WASHINGTON - Cindy McCain's claim to being the "only child" of Arizona beer baron Jim Hensley touched off a family feud Wednesday with an angry half-sister who was shortchanged in the will.
"I'm upset, I'm angry, it makes me feel like a nonperson," said Kathleen Hensley Portalski, 65, of Phoenix.
Her son, Nicholas Portalski, 38, also of Phoenix, said, "It just struck us very hard" when Cindy McCain recently repeated the "only child" claim.
The Portalskis told National Public Radio of the tangled family history - there's also another half-sister - that includes what presumptive GOP nominee John McCain has called his "greatest moral failure" in divorcing his first wife, Carol, to marry Cindy Lou Hensley.
Kathleen Anne Hensley was born to Jim and Mary Jeanne Hensley in 1943. Jim Hensley, who was to become the multimillionaire head of Arizona's largest beer distributorship, divorced Mary Jeanne in 1945 after returning from World War II.
Hensley married Marguerite Smith, who already had a daughter now named Dixie Burd. Cindy Hensley was born in 1954.
In a statement, the McCain campaign said: "Mrs. McCain was raised as the only child of Jim and Marguerite Hensley and had no family relationship with any other sibling."
Nicholas Portalski said that's not true.
He told the Daily News, "The fact is my mother and Cindy had lots of contact" over the years. "Cindy continues to make the point that she's an only child and my mother has to relive it. She [Kathleen] always wanted to have a closer relationship with her dad."
The Portalskis are Democrats and Nicholas Portalski said of the McCains that, "it's bad enough seeing these people gunning for the highest office. This other business is just hurtful."
Kathleen Hensley Portalski said she saw her father a "few times a year. I saw him at Christmas and birthdays, and he provided money for school clothes, and he called occasionally."
The last time the Portalskis saw Cindy McCain was at Jim Hensley's funeral in 2000. They haven't spoken since.
The Portalskis were left with $10,000 from the will. Cindy received millions and the beer distributorship that anchors the family's fortune, which is estimated at more than $100 million.
Nicholas Portalski said he came forward because of "the fact that we've never been recognized, and then Cindy has to put such a fine point on it by saying something that's not true."
