Edith Klestil was born in Vienna, the only child of a post office worker, Leopold Wielander, and his wife, Rosa.
She gave up her job in order to support her husband's career as a diplomat and accompanied him to Paris and Los Angeles.
Two years later, Thomas made public that he had a love affair with the much younger diplomat Margot Löffler.
Edith left her husband in February 1994,[1] and they were divorced in September 1998; Thomas married Löffler three months later.
[2] When Thomas died in office on 6 July 2004, Klestil and their children attended the funeral service held in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.