Where Are Iran-Contra Scandal's Oliver North & Fawn Hall Today? Their 40-Year Update Is A Twist No One Saw Coming

The Iran-Contra Scandal was arguably the most prominent of the various questionable things about Ronald Reagan's presidency. When the complex details were exposed, the revelations proved to be explosive: Senior officials within Reagan's administration had been covertly selling weapons to Iran, which, in exchange, agreed to free U.S. hostages who were being held in Lebanon. Trading arms for hostages was shady enough, but it was soon revealed that the profits from those illicit arms sales were being used to fund anti-Communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua to assist in overthrowing the left-wing Sandinista government — something that Congress had explicitly banned.

At the center of the scandal stood Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a highly decorated U.S. Marine who'd graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and had been awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts for his services as a platoon commander during the Vietnam War. In 1981, North was assigned to the National Security Council. Among his duties was ensuring the money raised from the secret weapon sales covertly made its way to the Contras, a task he dutifully embraced with the help of his loyal secretary, Fawn Hall. 

As the scandal blew open, both North and Hall became notorious media figures, attaining a dubious type of celebrity. While their infamy faded as the decades passed, there are some who may occasionally wonder where the two are today. As it turned out, their 40-year update is a twist no one saw coming — Oliver North and Fawn Hall are now married.

During the investigation into the arms-for-hostages deal, an awkward fact was revealed: Of the $30 million that the Iranians were reported to have paid, only $12 million could be accounted for. That led to Oliver North confessing he'd diverted the missing money to the Nicaraguan Contras, with the blessing of the National Security Council and, presumably, the president. North was fired and subsequently indicted on 12 criminal counts. 

North's secretary, Fawn Hall, had intimate knowledge of the dealings; in one case, she accidentally transposed numbers on a Swiss bank account, inadvertently wiring money from Brunei, earmarked for Nicaragua, into the account of an anonymous Swiss businessman. She was offered immunity in exchange for testifying against North, and her testimony proved to be a blockbuster when she confirmed helping North destroy key evidence. "As [North] pulled documents from each drawer and placed them on top of the shredder, I inserted them into the shredder," she testified, via Brown University. Hall also revealed she'd snuck top-secret documents out of North's office by hiding them under her skirt and in her boots.

Ultimately, North got off lightly. Of those 12 charges, he was convicted of only three: accepting a gratuity, aiding in the obstruction of Congress, and the destruction of documents. He was sentenced to three years in prison (suspended, so he never set foot behind bars), as well as two years' probation. He was also fined $150,000 and ordered to perform 1,200 hours of community service.

While Oliver North became a figure of disrepute, media exposure from the Iran-Contra Scandal transformed Fawn Hall into a bona fide celebrity. She became ubiquitous in the pages of supermarket tabloids, particularly when she briefly dated actor Rob Lowe (he'd reportedly tracked her down after watching her testify on TV). Both Playboy and Penthouse magazines took notice, and she famously turned down a $500,000 offer to pose nude for the latter publication. "She thought the [Penthouse] offer was disgusting," a friend of Hall's, F. Andrew Messing Jr., told the Los Angeles Times. 

Having previously worked part-time as a model, Hall had stardom in her sights when she signed with the WIlliam Morris talent agency in 1987. "She's got star quality," William Morris co-chair Norman Brokaw told the Los Angeles Times, revealing she was being represented by the same agent steering the career of former Supremes singer Diana Ross. According to Brokaw, a book deal was in the works; Farrah Fawcett reportedly expressed interest in portraying Hall if the book were to be made into a movie. Brokaw envisioned Hall becoming a television personality. "I see a broadcast deal for her down the road," he said.

By 1990, Hall had segued into TV journalism as a freelance TV reporter based in Pittsburgh. She continued to pursue a career in media and modeling. In 1993, she married Danny Sugarman, former manager for the Doors, who told the Doors' tragic real-life story in a bestselling book. 

The happily ever after Dawn Hall envisioned with Danny Sugarman was not to be. In 1995, Sugarman, a recovering drug addict, relapsed. He hid his drug use from Hall for a while, but she eventually discovered he'd been using crack cocaine. Her response, however, was both curious and fateful. "I don't know why, but I said, 'Let me try it,'" she said when the couple appeared together on "Inside Edition." She did, and before long, she began experiencing addiction. "Once I started I couldn't stop ... I couldn't control it anymore," she recalled. Those were dark days — Hall recalled that she didn't leave her home for months on end, refusing to answer the phone and barely eating. "Everything is centered on getting that drug," she said.

A near-fatal overdose in 1994 proved to be a wake-up call. Both she and Sugarman jointly made the life-changing decision to go to rehab. After that, the couple continued to embrace sobriety and remained together until, sadly, Sugarman died of lung cancer in 2005. In 2007, she listed the West Hollywood home they'd shared, asking for almost $2.5 million. 

In 2012, The Washington Post caught up with Hall, who had seemingly retreated from fame. At the time, she was living in West Hollywood, working at the famed Book Soup bookstore on the Sunset Strip, taking care to stay well out of the spotlight that she'd once so openly sought. 

Having dodged prison time over his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, Oliver North gravitated toward politics. In 1990, he founded Freedom Alliance, an organization with a mission to encourage military service while also defending America's sovereignty and promoting national defense. 

In 1994, he ran for a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Virginia but lost. His quest, however, was chronicled in a 1996 documentary about his campaign, "A Perfect Candidate." Meanwhile, his popularity with conservatives was apparent when that failed campaign managed to raise over $2 million. That ultimately led him to right-wing talk radio, then to being a commentator on MSNBC, and then on Fox News, via his "War Stories with Oliver North" documentary series. North also became a prolific author, writing numerous books that ranged from political commentary to fictional thriller.

In 2018, North became president of the National Rifle Association. His tenure at the NRA did not last long, however, when he was barred from running for reelection the following year. North claimed that he was being forced out by NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre after North accused LaPierre of financial misconduct. LaPierre, however, claimed North's ouster was because he'd threatened to release information that would damage his standing in the organization. North was later vindicated when he testified at the 2024 trial of LaPierre and other top NRA officials, who were accused by prosecutors (as reported by CNN) of using the organization as their "personal piggy bank."

In late 2024, Oliver North lost his longtime wife, Elizabeth "Betsy" North, who died at age 80 after 56 years of marriage. Writing in his SpyTalk Substack, journalist Michael Isikoff reported that North, 81, and Hall, 65, got married on August 27, 2025. While neither had made a public statement about their wedding or mentioned it on their respective social media accounts, Isikoff obtained a copy of the newlyweds' marriage certificate. 

According to Isikoff, a friend of the couple told him that the former Reagan administration official and his one-time secretary reconnected when both attended the funeral of North's wife in December 2024, held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, Virginia. "She rekindled the relationship at the funeral," the friend — who asked to remain anonymous — told Isikoff. "They started spending time together," the friend added, revealing that Hall began joining North at his farm in Bluemont, Virginia. As Isikoff quipped, the covert nuptials — which were attended by none of North's four children — bore some resemblance to their shady activities during the Iran-Contra Scandal. "It was a secret marriage," the friend added.