>> announcer: this is "nightline." >> tonight, the double life of the man who destroyed his young family. >> i trusted you to take care of them, not kill them, and they also trusted you. the heartless monster. >> killing his pregnant wife and two little girls, seemingly to start a new life without them. now one woman is speaking out about their secret affair. plus -- >> is your marriage monogamous? >> i do not need to answer that question. >> the scandal that sidelined the front runner, the rumors and the stakeout that unravelled gary hart's 1988 presidential bid. >> this is like a thriller. this is happening in a week. he's in an alleyway at 2:00 in the morning. this is the next president of the united states, probably.

>> george stephanopoulos sitting down with hugh jackman, his new film diving into hart's downfall and the media dilemma. and the comeback kid. but first the "nightline" five.

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good evening, thank you for joining us. chris watts was seemingly living a life of suburban bliss with his picture perfect family, but prosecutors say he was hiding a dark side, carrying on a secret affair with a desire to start over. that desire so strong he was willing to kill for it. here's abc's lindsey davis. >> how could a seemingly normal husband and father annihilate his entire family? for what? >> reporter: it's the ultimate question. why chris watts, an outwardly loving spouse and father, murdered his pregnant wife and two little girls. >> i have no idea who gave you the right to take their lives. >> reporter: after pleading guilty to murder charges, watts faced his wife's parents during an emotional sentencing hearing. >> this is the heartless one, the evil monster who dare you take the lives of my daughter, shannan, bella, celeste and niko. i trusted you to take care of

them, not kill them. >> reporter: watts remained stoically silent. >> would you like to make a statement? >> reporter: as the judge sentenced him to five consecutive life sentences with no possibility for parole. >> this is perhaps the most inhumane and vicious crime that i have handled out of the thousands of cases that i have seen. >> reporter: now suggestions of a secret life are emerging. he was having an affair. the woman, speaking out to the denver post, calling him a liar. she says the two began a physical relationship in early july and saw each other four to five times a week. >> he's created two worlds and he's decided he's going get rid of one of them because it's now a burden. >> reporter: watts and his wife shannan appear to be the picture perfect family. >> he was the one for me, and he is amazing. >> reporter: living in colorado, they had a baby on the way. >> so pink means? >> that's just the test. >> reporter: in social media videos, watts played the part of loving husband and doting father

to bella and celeste. >> my daddy is a hero. >> reporter: but back in august, that story of suburban bliss began to unravel when watts' pregnant wife and daughters went missing. >> shannan, bella, celeste, if you're out there, just come back. >> reporter: but just one day after that interview, watts confesses to murder. >> mr. watts, why did you kill your wife and two children? >> reporter: irrevocably shattering that image of a loving father. it all started the morning of monday, august 13th, when something went horribly wrong. >> i called her and texted her several times. >> reporter: nicole, shannan's friend, had seen her that morning around 2:00 a.m., dropping her off at home. just hours later, shannan, who was 15 weeks pregnant, and her 3 and 4-year-old daughters, celeste and bella, go missing. >> i knew she had a doctor's appointment that morning. she didn't show up for it. i'm just worried sick. i don't know where she's at. this is completely unlike her.

>> reporter: she called shannan's husband, chris. chris told her the last time he saw his wife and kids was that morning at 5:15 when he left for work. >> after i called her and texted her once, it was like, maybe she was just busy. when her friend showed up, that's when it registered, this isn't right. >> reporter: chris says he rushed home and nicole called police. >> i'm just concerned. shannan, if you're hearing this or you're out there, please, please let somebody know you're okay. >> reporter: by tuesday afternoon, chris watts is talking to local tv stations. >> if somebody has her, just please bring her back. >> reporter: interviews that first evoke sympathy but on closer examination, suspicion. watts revealing that he and his wife had exchanged words the morning she vanished. >> it wasn't like an argument. we had an emotional conversation but i'll leave it at that. but it's -- i just want them back. >> if you watch his interview, first of all, it's very flat.

it's unemotional. he spends a lot of the time rocking back and forth and he also holds himself like i'm doing right now. that's a defensive posture. that's saying, i'm not going to let you in. i'm going to control what i'm going to say. >> reporter: that tuesday night, watts goes to visit friends amanda and nick. they spoke with my colleague, clayton. >> did it ever cross your mind to even ask him if he was involved in the disappearance of his own family? >> we admitted this doesn't look good for chris. >> reporter: then on wednesday, everything changed with this bombshell. >> a heartbreaking outcome to the story we have been tracking all week, the confession of a father. >> reporter: late wednesday night, watts is arrested. by thursday, police are at the oil fields where watts used to work. they find three bodies, shannan's in a shallow grave, the bodies of bella and celeste chinesged for days inan.er --

ainsts filed, including five counts of first-degree murder and one for unlawful termination of a pregnancy. >> his motive was simple, "younger now." he had a desire for a fresh start, to begin a relationship with a new love that overpowered all decency and feelings for his wife, daughters and unborn son. >> reporter: just days ago the woman who was having an affair with chris watts spoke to the denver post, telling the paper, he's a liar. he lied about everything. according to annicole kessinger watts wooed her. she noticed that he didn't wear a wedding ring, allegedly telling her he was separated and at the end of the divorce butsounll befeyes when news reports announced watts' family had disappeared and watts presented himself to the world as a happily married man, begging for his family's return. kessinger telling "the denver post," i found out he was still married and his wife was 15 weeks pregnant, thinking, if he

was able to lie to me and hide something that big, what else was he lying about? kessinger reportedly went to the police who eventually arrested watts. >> the inexplicable nature of what he did is -- you can't understand it. >> he wants a gifrpd wants a life that's free and easy without all the complications and the financial entanglements of a typical family life. so that's how you get from a picture of one thing to a reality of another. >> reporter: on november 6th, watts pled guilty to murder in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table, a decision endorsed by shannan's family at yesterday's sentencing hearing. >> i didn't want death for you, because that's not my right. your life is between you and god now and i pray that he has mercy for you. >> you heartless monster, you

have -- you have to live with this vision every day of your life, and i hope you see that every time you close your eyes at night. >> reporter: prosecutors revealed gut wrenching details about how watts killed his wife and daughters. >> your honor, understand very clearly, bella fought back for her life. she bit her tongue multiple times before she died. she fought back for her life. as her father smothered her. >> reporter: shannan's family is now filing a civil suit as well, hoping to prevent watts from benefitting from this case in the future. >> it's very, very important to the family that chris watts never be able to receive a dime from any of these murders. nobody's going to be be able to bring back shannan or bella or celeste, but chris watts will never see the outside of a jail cell for the rest of his life ever. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm lindsey davis in new york.

>> our thanks to lindsey. next, hugh jackman's new drama on the downfall of the front runner. the presidential candidate at the white hot center of a political scandal. at the white hot center of a political scandal. ♪ we are santa's elves unlike santa's presents, ours don't just magically appear. they're designed, meticulously. every bolt, stitch, line of code tested and tested again. until, finally this. elves got nothing on us. ford. built for the holidays. time to get our best offers of the season. how's your cough? i'm good. i took 12-hour mucinex and sent it far away. hey buddy, have you seen a nice woman with a cough? woahhh! mucinex dm releases fast and lasts 12-hours, not 4. send coughs far away all day.

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it was the first major collision of tabloid and political journalism in the modern era and it would forever change the ground rules. gary hart's presidential bid derailed by a sex scandal. now a new movie starring hugh jackman raises many pointed questions about our current political situation.

here's abc's george stephanopoulos. >> so, start with the shoulder in a little. >> we've never seen hugh jackman quite like this,efiant, unapologetic and angry as failed presidential candidate gary hart in the new movie, "the front runner." >> it was important for me to m impersonate gary. >> you did have that hair. >> senator gary hart. >> the campaign for president, which i waged earlier this year. >> reporter: it was the sex scandal of the decade, the 1988 race for the presidency caught with a woman named donna rice. >> i can assure you, senator, this is relevant. >> it's just that we saw you leave and come back with this woman and we didn't see her. >> you can't be serious. there's no need for that. all right? >> i am serious, sir. >> reporter: what did you know about gary hart? >> very little. i was, i think, backpacking with five other usaussies in 1987 sot

know a lot about it but you have this true story about this cauldron of a presidential campaign for three weeks and a very human story. >> why are we standing in an alley on a saturday night? >> the only thing i deny is the idea that somehow you have the right to ask me these things. >> you're running for president. you have a responsibility. >> i know full well what my responsibilities are. do you know yours? >> i think he believed that the ideas would win out and that people would see that he had better ideas than others and they wouldn't care if he wore boxers or briefs. >> do you feel like you have a traditional marriage? >> yeah, no, that's it. >> you want to know what i'm doing in my spare time, a.j.? follow me around, put a tail on me. >> reporter: neither hart nor rice had discussed the details of their relationship. >> everything is on the record and we will be meeting again tomorrow. >> reporter: my collit donna ri week over 30 years after the

scandal that took down a presidential contender and turned her life upside down. >> i couldn't even get back into my apartment. there were high speed car chases. i got through it by the grace of god. i got through it. faith, family, and friends. >> has senator hart ever apologized to you? >> he did reach out after all those years. >> he called you? >> he did and apologized. and i told him i had forgiven him a long time ago. >> reporter: the fallout forced a tectonic shift in the national dialogue and drove hart out of his presidential bid within three weeks. >> abc news has been told by sources inside the hart campaign to be the that hart will announce his withdrawal within the next 24 hours. >> you think better from the perspective of today, it's hard for me to imagine, i think, that a candidate would drop out that quickly. >> there was no precedent. this was the first. it was like a thriller. this is happening in a week. he's in an alleyway with -- at 2:00 in the morning. this is the next president of the united states, probably, with three reporters from the

miami herald. >> it's unimaginable. >> reporter: gary hart launched his presidential campaign from the foothills of denver at red rocks amphitheater in april, 1987, promising to be a different kind of candidate. >> a campaign of change to shape and capture our future. >> reporter: the future of american politics. jackman and wrightman studied archival material of hart closely, recreating many iconic moments, like the time he expertly threw axes at a woodsman competition on the campaign trail. for jackman, known for his hulking physicality in movies like wolverine and "the greatest showman," training to play an ax-throwing politician was a different thing. is it true you memorized hart's speeches? >> his speeches were really interesting to me because he spoke in a very unique way. he was unlike a lot of politicians that i hear. he was very to the point,

simple, and clear. >> is your marriage monogamous? >> i do not need to answer that question. >> you see that in that most important press conference of his life at the end. you know? what do you say? yes, i made a mistake. did i make a mistake by putting myself in circumstances that could be misconstrued? of course i did. >> when gary watched the film, the first question he asked me was, do i really talk like that? and his wife, lee, said, yes, darling, that's exactly it. >> hart and his wife, lee, weathered the 1988 storm. they're still married today but the movie explores some of their more difficult times. >> i met a woman in miami and they followed her to d.c. to a townhouse in d.c. >> i see. >> i'm so sorry.

>> the one thing i ever asked was that you don't embarrass me. >> one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. >> yeah, it's beautiful. >> reporter: you promised you wouldn't embarrass me. >> right. and she -- and he also is protective of the system, the political system, and didn't want to be part of what he thought what might be degrading the sanctity of the process. gary hart had a very strong sense of what he thought was relevant and what he thought was irrelevant and that's the question that the movie is asking the audience. what matters? >> they can write all this crap all they want. they will not earn the dignity of my response. >> reporter: a shocked hart spends much of the film struggling to keep his personal life from derailing his political campaign. >> and i care about the sanctity of this process. whether you do or do not. >> i identify with the staffers' point of view. you have a responsibility to them as well. >> i always assumed from an outsider's point of view, particularly australia, american conventions look so slick, you

think there's millions of people, that everything is fine tuned. what you realize from the inside is how many realtime decisions are being made on the fly, there are just -- and now, as you say, that must be changing 50 times a day. >> hugh jackman has played all kinds of characters. playing a living person proved to be a different kind of challenge. >> reporter: can you summarize what you think he thought about the film? >> i think that he felt as though we had empathy for him. and we wanted to understand him. and i think that probably went a long way. >> so you met the challenge of playing a living character. >> yeah. i went for it. you know, it's -- and in the process, made great friends and this is a collaboration that i'll always treasure and also with gary and his family, you know, and that -- that's -- i was nervous about meeting him. i think we both were. you know, about doing this. and i have great respect for him and his family. that's been an unbelievable bonus out of this. and next, the young hockey player making a remarkable

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and finally tonight, the comeback kid, what one hockey player went through to get back in the rink. here's abc's david >> reporter: gage centsenter ha loved hockey since he was a boy. he made the varsity starting line-up but that summer he was struck by a car at a crosswalk. gage spent a month in a coma. he was on life support with traumatic brain injury for 22 months, gage got to work, determined to recover. >> i had to relearn how to walk, relearn how to talk. >> reporter: and gage even began helping others with brain injury too. he's become a role model for others at the school in brockton, massachusetts. >> i help them just like i was helped. >> reporter: and just last string, this was gage taking his first steps back on the ice. to gage and his family, it was a

victory and tonight, just look at gage on the ice now. >> i had so much my whole life and i just feel like i made it. that's what i have to say for everyone with a, like, injury. you can't give up. just keep trying. >> way to never give up, gage. for nights when you can't be with us right here, you can always catch our full episodes on hulu. thanks for the company, america. good night.