SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

How Giuliani's Third Marriage Imploded Very Publicly

By Azi Paybarah

It's Tuesday.

Weather: Skies should be clear, and the high will reach the mid-70s. Tonight the temperature will dip below 60.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Sept. 30 (Rosh Hashana).

John Locher/Associated Press

When Rudy Giuliani wanted to divorce his second wife, he announced it at a news conference in Bryant Park — which is how she found out.

When he married for a third time, in 2003, the ceremony was held on the lawn of Gracie Mansion.

Then when he ran for president in 2007, his campaign was jolted by a report that, as mayor, he had traveled to the Long Island neighborhood where Judith Nathan, now Judith Giuliani, lived — while he was still married to his second wife.

At times, Mr. Giuliani's love life has been sensational. At times, it has leapt from gossip pages to news pages.

Now comes another chapter: The Giulianis are divorcing after 16 years of marriage. The Times's Sarah Maslin Nir reported on the brawl that is, tangentially, connected to the White House.

[Giuliani Divorce: It's Ugly, It's Operatic. What Did You Expect?]

The split is loud and cantankerous and demands attention — which is what seems to happen to just about everything Mr. Giuliani touches, Marc L. Mukasey, Mr. Giuliani's former law partner, told my colleague.

"In caustic legal proceedings this summer, the separated couple has battled over things as prosaic as her kitchen renovations and as rarefied as his splurges — $7,131 on fountain pens and another $12,012 on cigars," Ms. Nir wrote.

The article drew strong reactions on social media. Yashar Ali, an influential magazine reporter, called it a "must-read" and said, "I want to eat this piece for breakfast, lunch and dinner."

Peter N. Bouckaert, an environmental activist, wondered, "What world do these people live in," after reading about the couple's $230,000-a-month lifestyle.

After serving two terms as mayor of New York, Mr. Giuliani took a lucrative job at the law firm Greenberg Traurig. In 2017 he earned $9.5 million, according to Mrs. Giuliani's lawyers.

As Ms. Nir reported, Mr. Giuliani left the firm in 2018, a month after the divorce was filed, and chose to work as President Trump's lawyer pro bono.

Mrs. Giuliani said she believed he did this to reduce alimony payments.

"I feel betrayed by a man that I supported in every way for more than 20 years," Mrs. Giuliani told Ms. Nir. "I'm sad to know that the hero of 9/11 has become a liar."

Mr. Giuliani's team denied the accusation.

In an interview, Mr. Giuliani lamented the toll this had all taken on the people around him.

"Everybody's life around you is being disrupted," he said. "You get the pain of that, but also you get the satisfaction of what it means to be in public office — they don't. There is a certain amount of guilt in that."

A trial date has been set for January.

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The Mini Crossword: Here is today's puzzle.

What we're reading

An off-duty Police Department inspector died yesterday when his motorcycle was hit by a truck in the Bronx. [Daily News]

A women's suffrage monument planned for Central Park could be delayed. [amNew York]

The New York Philharmonic is courting social media "influencers" to lure millennials. [Wall Street Journal]

Coming up today

Celebrate the Asian American Feminist Collective's first year with music, drinks and dancing at the Delancey Rooftop in Manhattan. 6:30 p.m. [$10-$20 suggested donation]

A discussion on the state of Venezuela's fashion industry amid political turmoil takes place at the Museum at FIT in Manhattan. 6 p.m. [Free with R.S.V.P.]

Spend the evening with a panel of "Radical Women Writers" and listen to poetry at Franklin Park in Brooklyn. 8 p.m. [Free]

— Melissa Guerrero and Julia Carmel

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times's culture pages.

And finally: A city of bike lovers

The Times's Melissa Guerrero writes:

From BMXs and Schwinns to custom-made creations and everything in between, the Museum of the City of New York is celebrating the two-wheeled machine (and unicycles and tricycles, too).

As part of its "Cycling in the City: A 200-Year History" exhibition, the museum is gathering bike enthusiasts tonight at 7 for "The Wide, Wild World of N.Y.C. Cycling," a talk about cycling culture, the community it creates and its influence on urban life.

Before the talk, Bike New York is holding a free winter cycling workshop at 6 p.m.

"We love this approach at the museum where we take something which seems small or everyday and then look into it very closely, and it suddenly opens up an entire world," Fran Rosenfeld, the museum's director of public programs, said.

There have never been more New Yorkers biking, in part because of the expansion of Citi Bike and the creation of more bicycle lanes.

Among the speakers will be Brenda Clavijo, who has biked most of her life and is the daughter of the founder of the Puerto Rican Schwinn Club.

"It's really big for me to be able to still bring a little bit of his legacy forward," she said, referring to her father. "He started building these bikes and connecting with other people that have the same life."

Other speakers include David Trimble, the founder of the fixed-gear race series Red Hook Crit, and Tom Porter, who owns Porter Cycles in Brooklyn and is a member of a group called the Black Label Bike Club.

Tickets for the talk are $12 to $15, and the exhibition is on view through Oct. 14.

It's Tuesday — ride your bike.

Metropolitan Diary: After happy hour

Dear Diary:

I was waiting for the N after meeting some friends for a happy hour downtown. A guy wearing a winter cap and an ornery grin approached me.

"If you're going to Astoria, I've been waiting for that train for almost 45 minutes," he said. "I'm not sure it's coming."

After another minute, we determined that we were headed in a similar direction. We decided to abandon the N and share a car. I was in the middle of calling one when the N pulled up. We shrugged and got on.

I took a seat, assuming the conversation was over. But he asked the woman sitting next to me whether they could switch seats so that we could keep talking.

We continued the conversation, sharing good banter and swapping tales of traveling and teaching English abroad.

We wound up getting off at the same stop, and then hesitated before going our separate ways.

"Should I give you my business card or something?" he said. "I don't know how this works."

Laughing, I took his card. I walked home feeling the kind of hope that a chance New York encounter can bring. When I got home, I put the card on my nightstand. I hadn't decided whether to reach out.

The next morning, I was running late when I got on the train. We were being held at the station. I pulled out the card. The train started moving, and then it stopped again.

Annoyed, I put the card away and looked around to see why the train wasn't moving. I saw that the doors had been forced open. Stumbling through them was the guy in the cap.

— Katie Perkowski

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