Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Nelson Mandela's extraordinary life is filled with unanswerable questions. What would he have

accomplished around the world if he hadn't spent 27 years behind bars.

Would the course of apartheid in South Africa,

which he fought so vehemently against,

been halted decades earlier?

And would his epic love affair with his wife, Winnienie have survived.

They met at a bus stop in Soweto, South Africa.

She was 22 and as the nation's first black female social worker, her life had already taken off.

He was 40, married, and had three children.

He was fixated on a seemingly impossible goal to end South Africa's systemic policies of racism.

A week later, they got Indian food together. He was smitten.

He wrote in his biography, I cannot say for certain if there is such a thing as love at first

sight, but I do know that the moment I first glimpsed Winnie, I knew that I wanted

to have her as my wife.

Mandela divorced his first wife, and then he and Winnie got married.

The relationship was passionate.

They held hands publicly and went to jazz clubs.

Occasionally they fought, though, about the little things other couples quarrel about every day.

Like when Nelson tried to teach Winnie how to drive.

They were emerging as the ultimate power couple, powerful voices against apartheid in South Africa

and racism around the world. But their happiness and their power was short-lived.

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