Relationships are hard. Keeping the spark alive after years of seeing the same person day in and day out is tough. When you factor in careers, children, and finances, it becomes even more difficult. You put the public spotlight in the equation, and it becomes darn near impossible.
For former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, they have decided enough is enough, and after nearly 30 years of marriage, have announced they will be separating. Oddly, they will also remain in the same house and will be dating other people.
The couple cited de Blasio’s failed 2020 presidential run and his seven-year tenure as mayor of New York as the primary reason for their new arrangement. Obviously, that type of time commitment and subsequent public humiliation surrounding his presidential run surely affected their relationship, but 30 years is a long time, and the spark is apparently gone.
Considering de Blasio’s wife and her history before she met the future mayor, you might be able to question if that spark was ever even real. In an interview, de Blasio made some eye-opening comments about his wife, Chirlane McCray: “For the guy who took the chance on a woman who was an out lesbian and wrote an article called ‘I Am a Lesbian, there was a part of me that would at times say, ‘Hmmm, is this like a time bomb ticking? Is this something that you’re going to regret later on?’ So I always lived with that stuff.”
The most insufferable couple of all time. They are separating and dating other people while living together…so they called up the NYT for a THREE HOUR INTERVIEW. https://t.co/1yaD24alAK
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 6, 2023
A big ask, indeed, to marry an open lesbian. Perhaps de Blasio should be commended for marrying a self-proclaimed gay black woman, having kids, and making it work for almost three decades.
It is an old trope, men proclaiming they can turn a woman back to being straight from being gay because of their sexual prowess. However, it is a trope because it almost never works.
In the case of de Blasio and McCray, it worked longer than most. That isn’t to say McCray is going back to the ladies. The couple has declared that they will date other people while they still cohabitate in their Park Slope townhouse, but the key word might be “people.”
The word “men” is not mentioned, so the inference could be that McCray wants to keep her dating options open. In a series of interviews on the subject, McCray said: “I discovered my preference for women early, before getting locked into a traditional marriage and having children.” She claimed her relationship with de Blasio bloomed after: “putting aside the assumptions I had about the form and package my love would come in.”
When asked if she considered herself bisexual, she said: “I am more than just a label. Why are people so driven to labeling where we fall on the sexual spectrum? Labels put people in boxes, and those boxes are shaped like coffins.”
It is unfortunate when a marriage ends. The couple’s children are grown, but it still affects even adult children. The new living arrangement and dating plans will take a special kind of understanding and a lot of communication. I wouldn’t want to attempt such a maneuver, but I didn’t marry an open lesbian as de Blasio did. Good luck to the couple; they will need it.
"*" indicates required fields