Imelda Romualdez Marcos (born 1930) was one of the most influential leaders of the Philippines in the 1970s and early 1980s. She was the wife of President Ferdinand Marcos and a political power in her own right. She served as governor of Metro Manila and controlled considerable government spending. She fled with her husband to Hawaii early in 1986 and after his death, ran into legal problems concerning money she and her husband had allegedly stolen from their country.

Imelda Romualdez Marcos was born in 1930 to a prominent family in the Central Visayas in Leyte Province in the Philippine Islands. After winning a nation-wide beauty contest she married Ferdinand Marcos, a rising political leader who later became president of the Philippines.

Imelda Romualdez Marcos became one of the most influential leaders of the Philippines. Much of her power came from her position as First Lady. On her own, however, she...