Global Courant
NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, are separating but not divorcing after a 29-year marriage that helped land De Blasio the position of mayor.
McCray, 68, confirmed the divorce in a text to The Associated Press after The New York Times ran a story in which she and De Blasio, 62, said they will continue to share the same Brooklyn townhouse while dating other people.
Together they came to the realization that the spark had jumped out of their relationship, they told the newspaper in a joint interview.
“You can’t fake it,” McCray said.
“You can sense when things aren’t right,” De Blasio said, “and you don’t want to live like that.”
McCray said the pair spoke to the Times in an effort to avoid gossip.
“As very public people starting a new chapter, we thought it was better to say all this openly before anyone tries to find negativity, or before misunderstandings arise,” she told the AP.
McCray said she and de Blasio have “only respect and admiration for each other, and the sense of wonder that we ever found each other in the beginning.”
De Blasio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
De Blasio, the city’s public advocate at the time, ran in the 2013 Democratic mayoral primary as an underdog, but came out on top, thanks in part to the sexting scandal that sparked the campaign of former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner went under. De Blasio served two terms as mayor and was succeeded by fellow Democrat Eric Adams.
De Blasio, who is white, and McCray, who is black, met in the early 1990s while both worked for New York City’s first black mayor, Democrat David Dinkins.
Their interracial family helped boost de Blasio’s 2013 campaign, especially after their teenage son, Dante de Blasio, starred in a TV ad promising his father would end the billionaire mayor of three tenures, Mike Bloomberg, like stop-and-frisk police.
McCray often sided with De Blasio during his two terms as mayor and was put in charge of a mental health initiative called ThriveNYC that was criticized for its $1 billion price tag and lack of measurable results.
She joined him for announcing his short-lived run for the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, though she told the Times she had doubts about the endeavor.
“I thought it was a distraction,” she said.
“A little bit true,” De Blasio admitted. “Point for Chirlane.”
