Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray announced their separation Wednesday — blaming his long-derided political career for torpedoing their nearly three-decade marriage.
De Blasio and McCray, who’s previously identified as a lesbian, will remain married and continue living together in their Park Slope, Brooklyn abode as they date other people, they said in an hours-long sit down with the New York Times.
Asked whether de Blasio’s tumultuous eight years in Gracie Mansion — capped by deeply unfavorable ratings among New Yorkers — combined with his quixotic 2020 presidential bid had anything to do with the split, McCray emphatically told The Post, “Oh, yes, absolutely!”
“I thought it was a distraction,” McCray, 68, also told The Times of her hubby’s failed White House run, while admitting that she knew she had to be supportive anyway.
“This is not the kind of thing where you can break ranks,” she said. “That’s part of the difficulty of being part of a package.”
The mutual decision to split came about two months ago, when de Blasio, 62, asked his wife at home, “Why aren’t you lovey-dovey anymore?”
McCray and de Blasio, the liberal, biracial couple who rocketed to popularity in 2013’s landslide mayoral victory, share two adult children, Dante and Chiara.
During his time in office, McCray headed embattled billion-dollar ThriveNYC initiative, which failed to deliver on its promises to treat the city’s mentally ill.
The Wellesley College graduate, who came out as a lesbian before marrying de Blasio, told the Times that she felt her own ambitions were stifled by the constraints of Gracie Mansion.
“How can you be a couple in the fullness of what you tend to think … when you’ve got this responsibility on your shoulders and you don’t want to add to that?” she lamented.
“There’s a certain weight … that goes with being with Mr. Mayor.”
De Blasio, for his part, confessed to becoming “emotionally very needy” during the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said left the couple “not as connected.”
At the time, Hizzoner was beset with a burgeoning infection rate in the city and a nasty war with then-Gov. Cuomo over their response to the pandemic.
“Everything was this overwhelming schedule, this sort of series of tasks,” said de Blasio about his two terms in office. “And that kind of took away a little bit of our soul.”
Outside their Park Slope home, McCray insisted to reporters that the pair, who married in 1994, were “still very much in love.”
“We came to this decision together and I think it’s the right decision for us,” she explained.
“I hope that we can be a model for how couples can communicate honestly about what their needs are and to conduct themselves when they find it’s time to move in another direction. I think that’s important.”
While McCray was all smiles, she admitted to reporters that she and de Blasio are still adjusting to their new normal.
“It’s one thing to make a decision, it’s another thing to think … figuring out how it plays out and we will be talking about that over the next months,” she said.
McCray added that Chiara, 28, and Dante, 26 are “a little sad, but very positive” about the separation.
“We’ve been together for nearly 32 years … Serving shoulder to shoulder in City Hall and even before that,” she said. “We’ve raised a beautiful family.
“And we just want to be able to continue our lives as public people — which, it seems, like we never stop being public people no matter what. But do it in a way that shows that all that we had, all that we built, doesn’t just go away.”
The notoriously time-challenged De Blasio stepped out of the family’s home and into a cab just before 8 a.m. Wednesday with a suitcase in hand.
“He was just going on a trip,” McCray said, laughing. “He’ll be back.”
After abandoning his longshot presidential ambitions, de Blasio took a job as a visiting teaching fellow at Harvard University and teaching at New York University — while also opting for a makeover.
“I never anticipated ever doing anything with hair color,” he told The Times of his obviously dyed brown ‘do — a stark contrast from the salt-and-pepper look he previously rocked. “But I like feeling what I feel.”
Both McCray and de Blasio said they were excited to start dating again, with the former telling reporters that she was intrigued by the “new territory.”
McCray even joked about including their phone numbers in The Times story, while de Blasio noted that the song “Mango” by Kamauu featuring Adi Oasis resonated with the couple.
“If you found some other dude, what would I do? How could I not love him too, if he loves you truly? If he improves you more than I used to?” the lyrics go.
De Blasio, meanwhile, asked The Times to get his phone ringing by printing a thirst trap photo.
“Can I put a picture from the gym in there?” he teased.
