Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images
But Cuomo, 61, is no stranger to headlines.
Now in his third term as governor of the Empire State, Cuomo has been in the news for years, from his time in the so-called “Cuomolot” via his ill-fated marriage to a Kennedy to his many rebukes of PresidentDonald Trump, a fellow born-and-bred New Yorker.
Here are five things to know about Cuomo.
Like Father, Like Son
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (left) and dad Mario Cuomo in 2006.TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty
Born and raised in Queens, Cuomo’s family cemented its decades-long place in the state’s politics when his father, Mario Cuomo, was elected governor in the early ‘80s after serving in other roles in the ’70s.
Mariodied in 2015 at age 82on the same day the younger Cuomo began his second term as governor. He remembered his father in a statement as having improved “the business environment of New York and the quality of life for its citizens, despite a national recession at the time.”
“He was my best friend. He was my best ally,” Cuomo toldThe Atlanticin March. “My best colleague. Brilliant. Principled.”
Cuomo followed in dad’s footsteps with a political career, working for years with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before returning to New York, where he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2002.
His younger brother, Chris, pursued a career in journalism instead, working for several years as an anchor onGood Morning Americaand now serving as a CNN anchor.
A Kennedy Marriage
Cuomo was married for more than a decade toKerry Kennedy, daughter of the lateRobert F. Kennedy. The coupletied the knot in 1990after 18 months of dating, withThe New York Timesreporting in 2003 that Kerry once said she fell in love with him after he took her on a tour of a homeless shelter on their first date.
They welcomed three daughters together: twins Cara and Mariah, 24, and Michaela, 22.
Relationship with Lee
Cuomo was still reeling from dissolving marriage when he met theSemi-Homemadehost at a Hamptons cocktail party in 2005, the same year she reportedly divorced businessman Bruce Karatz after four years of marriage.
By 2008, they’dmoved in togetherin a mansion in New Castle, New York, which Lee listed in May, sparking rumors of a breakup.
Though they never married, Lee and Cuomo discussed it, with the lifestyle entrepreneurtellingThe New York Times Magazinein 2012 it was something his three children wanted.
“It’s very sweet,” she said.
Lee, who has no biological children, came to think of the girls as her own, once joking they were her “semi-homemade daughters.”
“Everybody’s cool with it. I absolutely feel like they’re mine when they’re with me,” she toldHarper’s Bazaarin 2011.
Trump Spars
Drew Angerer/Getty; SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty
Cuomo has long been a critic of President Trump, calling him everything from “un-American” to a “coward.”
“He is personally and emotionally motivated. He is without long-term strategy and tactics, and he’s scared,” Cuomo toldThe Atlanticin March. “He’s lost a lot [of supporters] who have lost faith in him. Once you lose faith in the person, the message loses credibility … He was a businessman, outsider, successful, articulate. And a fresh face. He had all that going for him. Now he is mercurial. Obnoxious. Alienating.”
Cuomo drew criticism from Trump in July after he signed a bill allowing congressional committees to access the president’s state tax returns for any “specified and legitimate legislative purpose.”
Trump hit back, as he is wont to do, onTwitter, writing that Cuomo “uses his Attorney General as a bludgeoning tool for his own purposes. They sue on everything, always in search of a crime.”
Previously inMarch, he accused Cuomo of being a “presidential harasser.”
Cuomo, meanwhile, slammed Trump in August 2018 duringscathing remarksat the First Baptist Church of Crown Heights in Brooklyn — criticizing Trump on everything from gun violence to his treatment of women.
He added, “I have a message for the President: Mr. Trump: I’ve known you for 30 years. You may be a slick salesman, who fooled many people in this country, but you didn’t fool me and you didn’t fool New Yorkers.”
What’s Next?
With his relationship with Lee now in the rear view, Cuomo will focus on his next goal: another term as governor.
Months after he was elected for a third term,beating formerSex and the Citystar Cynthia Nixonfor the Democratic nomination in the process, Cuomo said he plans on running once again in 2022.
“I plan to run for a fourth term,” he said in May during an interview on WAMC radio. “I believe I’m making a difference in the state of New York. I believe that in my heart.”
He continued, “I think I’m doing good things … I believe I know how to do this. I would like to do it for as long as the people of the state of New York believe I am a positive.”
source: people.com
