Neither John nor Carol McCain blame the former's years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam as a key reason for the breakdown in their marriage. Still, those close to the couple felt the years spent apart had an impact. Joe McCain, John's younger brother, told The Washington Post that "...I think that during those 5 1/2 years, they both changed to a certain degree under all that stress. When he came back, they wanted the marriage to work, [but] I think they'd just gone to different places and they couldn't put it back."

In his biography "Worth Fighting For," John was clear about who was to blame for the end of his first marriage. He wrote "...my marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war. The blame was entirely mine."

Carol has been gracious but direct about what happened, too, as she said years later, "He was looking for a way to be young again, and that was the end of that." She also denied having any idea that things weren't all right. "I didn't know anything about it, I had no idea what was going on, I was pretty much blindsided and it broke my heart," she said (via People).