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Questions About Giuliani's Relationship With Aide

Mayor says reports of 'intimate' relationship are 'scurrilous'

NEW YORK (AllPolitics, Aug. 4) -- Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's "intimate" relationship with a top female aide has left his 13-year marriage to TV personality Donna Hanover in ruins, according to the new Vanity Fair magazine.

The magazine's upcoming issue says Giuliani, 53, and his communications director, Cristyne Lategano, 32, began a liaison in 1994 when Giuliani campaigned around the country for other Republicans.

"My reaction is that it's a scurrilous article," Giuliani said today after appearing at the New York Stock Exchange. "It's untrue." Giuliani said voters would base their vote this fall on his job performance, not on "cheap rumors."

Giuliani and Hanover, who have two children, rarely appear together, and Hanover has not played a role in his re-election campaign.

Lategano, who attends all mayoral events, told The Associated Press: "I just think that when a man works these kinds of hours it's called being loyal to your boss. When a woman works these kind of hours it's called something else and that's unfair." Lategano works constantly, sometimes as many as 20 hours a day, and even some co-workers chafe at her tight command of the mayor's media relations.

Hanover did not challenge or deny the article. She did give a written statement to the New York Daily News that cited her charitable works as the city's first lady and added: "Above all, my family is deeply important to me and will remain so in the years ahead."

The Vanity Fair article, written by reporter Jennet Conant, cites unnamed former aides to the mayor. Some aides overheard "screaming fights" at Gracie Mansion, when the mayor and Hanover were there together.

Giuliani has been a popular mayor, and it's difficult to say whether the story will make a brief splash or last long enough to have any impact on his re-election. He has a commanding 23-point lead in the polls and a healthy 69 percent approval rating.

Democratic front-runner Ruth Messinger said through an aide that she would have no comment on the article, and would instead continue to talk about education and unemployment.