Lindsay Mills: Edward Snowden Abandons Girlfriend in NSA Scandal Aftermath

Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who revealed the U.S. government’s comprehensive phone and internet surveillance system called PRISM, has fled to Hong Kong for sanctuary.

Due to his actions, Snowden, at risk of serious federal charges that could land him in jail for decades, will most likely never be allowed to return back to the US and Snowden himself has told the Guardian “I do not expect to see home again.” But what about the people Snowden left behind? In addition to being forced to leave his own country for leaking confidential information, Snowden also had to leave his loved ones. One of these people is Snowden’s girlfriend, Lindsay Mills.

Lindsay Mills describes herself on her blog as a “world traveling, pole-dancing superhero”.

As a 28-year-old dancer with an extensive online presence, Lindsay digital footprint has shown that she has not taken the sudden separation well. In her last blog post on June 10, Mills wrote that she was “lost and adrift” and “at the moment, all I feel is alone… sometimes life doesn’t afford proper goodbyes.”

Before leaving the country and leaking confidential information, Snowden told Mills that he would be going away for a free week and gave a vague reason why. Now he is an international fugitive of the U.S. government who is trying to get Hong Kong to extradite him. Talk about a sudden change in the terms of a relationship. What makes their relationship even more intriguing is that Mills has not publicly acknowledged dating Snowden, only describing her boyfriend as “E” or “mystery man” and never directly featuring his face in any photos.

Mills had already had a rocky relationship with Snowden, as she relates in her June 2012 blog post that “it has been quite an emotional up-and-down roller coaster since the moment I stepped off the plane” when she moved to Hawaii to be with Snowden. One can only imagine the tension and pain she must feel for suddenly being unable to see her boyfriend and also being under scrutiny by the US government,  having the home Snowden and Mills only shared twice be visited by NSA police and other law-enforcement officials.

Mill’s blog has now been taken down and she tweeted on June 11 “To delete or not to delete. That is the question.” Her Twitter account is still active. Mill’s roller coaster relationship with Snowden is now on an indefinite standstill and its future has lots of twists and turns ahead of it.