Jasmine Ray, the former director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sports, Wellness and Recreation, posted on Instagram last week that she had had a “hidden relationship” with Mayor Eric Adams, which a City Hall spokesperson confirmed occurred about a decade ago, according to the Daily News. She also announced the release of her self-published memoir, a tell-all book about her relationship with the mayor, which came out Sunday. Here’s a look at other complicated mayoral couplings.
Wouter van Twiller: Twiller was the director of New Amsterdam (the precursor to New York City) in the 1630s, who had an affair with Griet Reyniers, a well-known prostitute and ancestor of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Twiller liked her so much he made her his mistress. Their affair ended badly, inspiring her famous quote: “I have long been the whore of the nobility. From now on I shall be the whore of the rabble.”
David Mathews: Mathews, the city’s last colonial mayor from 1776 to 1783, was referred to as “profligate, abandoned, and dissipated,” but the names of his alleged mistresses were never documented.
Fernando Wood: Wood, who had two nonconsecutive terms as mayor from 1855-1857 and then again from 1860-1862, had a tumultuous love life, marrying three times. His first marriage to Anna W. Taylor began in 1831 and ended in divorce in 1839, due to her adultery. His second marriage to Ann Dole Richardson in 1841, with whom he had seven children, ended with her death in 1859. Finally his third marriage to 16-year-old Alice Fenner Mills, while he was 48, resulted in nine children.
William J. Gaynor: Gaynor, who served as mayor from 1910-1913, had a personal life marked by two tempestuous marriages. His first to Emma Vesta Hyde in 1876, ended in divorce several years later on the grounds of adultery, though historical accounts don’t specify which party was at fault. In 1886, he married Augusta Cole Mayer. Despite its duration, this marriage was reportedly volatile; a secretary once recalled Augusta firing a gun at Gaynor, with the bullet lodging in their home's woodwork.
Jimmy Walker: Walker, mayor during the city’s Jazz Age, was well known for his philandering with chorus girls and was a notorious fan of the infamous brothel owner Polly Adler’s establishments. Elected in 1926, he later left his wife for actor Betty Compton and sailed to Europe with her after resigning from office in 1932.
William O’Dwyer: O’Dwyer, a former police officer and Democrat who served from 1946 to 1950, met his first wife, Catherine Lenihan, while she was a switchboard operator at the Vanderbilt Hotel. Lenihan died in 1946 after a long illness while in her bed at Gracie Mansion. He dated for the duration of his first term in office until marrying fashion model Sloane Simpson, a pal of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in 1949. They divorced in 1953.
John Lindsay: Lindsay, who served from 1966 through 1973 and was married to his wife Mary Lindsay until he died in 2000, allegedly had brief dalliances with Florence Henderson, who claims she came away from the bedding with pubic lice, and with former model Bettina Cirrone. Cirrone is now 92 and living in her Central Park South apartment filled with gifts from celebrity friends like Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí. When City & State reached out to her to ask about her alleged romance with the former mayor, she giggled and eventually hung up the phone after a long silence.
Ed Koch: Koch, a Democratic mayor who served three terms from 1978 to 1989, was reportedly involved in a long-term romantic relationship when he served in Congress, prior to when he was elected mayor, with Richard W. Nathan, a health care consultant. Koch reportedly pressured Nathan to find work in another city to prevent a political scandal before he took office, which ended their relationship.
Rudy Giuliani: Giuliani, a Republican mayor who served from 1994 through 2001, was having an affair with Judith Nathan, a former medical sales executive, while he was married to TV news anchor Donna Hanover, creating a significant public scandal that preceded their contentious divorce in 2002. Two years earlier, Giuliani seemed to have surprised even himself when he awkwardly blurted out an announcement about his divorce to Hanover, which she had been unaware of, during a press conference.
Eric Adams: Adams has been connected to multiple women, in addition to his partner, Tracey Collins, who stepped down from her job at the New York City Department of Education amid reporting it was a no-show job. Now, on the heels of his decision to suspend his long-shot mayoral reelection, Ray has released a self-published book where she discusses their relationship. She resigned from her six-figure job leading the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sports, Wellness and Recreation, which she held for roughly three years, in late September.