This year is the 50th anniversary of the role that put Lynda Carter on the map. From 1975 to 1979, she starred on TV as Wonder Woman—a hero as iconic to kid Gen-Xers as Elsa is to today’s little girls. So by the time Carter moved to Washington in 1983 to marry lawyer Robert Altman, she was already a famous face used to hanging out with powerful people. But DC was a very different world than Hollywood. Here, the longtime Potomac resident looks back.
“I met Robert at a dinner in Memphis for Schering-Plough, which owned Maybelline. I was there for Maybelline—they gave me a dinner party and I sat next to him. Well, he planned that I’d sit next to him. It was instant attraction, and we were married for 37 years. Too short. [Altman died of cancer in 2021.]
“My first year in Washington was heady. We were invited to everything. You walk into this city from Hollywood, and this Washington thing was fun.
“My husband was more of an insider, and I was an observer. I didn’t know anything about politics. But I’ve always been a woman that spoke her mind. Maybe that was refreshing.
“I met [the late congressman] John Dingell getting a pillow wrapped around his stomach to play Santa Claus in the Capitol. At the time, he was one of the most powerful people in Washington. His wife [current congresswoman Debbie Dingell] said, ‘Come in and meet my husband.’
“I went back to Robert’s house and said, ‘Oh, I met a congressman or senator or something, and it was really funny—he had [only] black socks and shoes, long boxers, and a pillow strapped to him. Robert said, ‘Who was it?’ I said, ‘I don’t know—Pringle, Stingle.’ He said, ‘Dingell? Do you know how long I’ve been trying to avoid that man?’ I said, ‘Well, they asked us to go to dinner.’ And we became lifelong friends—they are godparents to my children.
“The Clinton White House was the most fun, the most interesting, the most active. President Clinton once said, ‘Lynda, I have the opportunity to invite any artist or scientist or poet in the world to the White House.’ He invited every single person to perform, from pop stars to great opera singers. Mrs. Clinton is one of the smartest people I have ever met. She can speak on almost any subject without notes.
“We’ve actually known Donald Trump for 40 years, and over the years he has done some nice things for us. Politics-wise, I don’t agree, but that’s another issue.
“Now my husband, my children—they’re all gone. [Carter’s son and daughter are grown.] It’s a little more isolated. I tried to move to Miami for a little bit right after my husband died—I didn’t want to be where my whole life was. But I need to be here. It’s where my whole life is.”
This article appears in the February 2025 issue of Washingtonian.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
