EXCLUSIVE: Rudy Giuliani 'Couldn't Have A Better Adviser' Than Wife Judith

March 31, 2007 — -- In an interview with Barbara Walters, former New York City Mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said that if elected president, he would have no problem allowing his wife Judith Giuliani to sit in on cabinet meetings, "If she wanted to. If they were relevant to something that she was interested in. I mean that would be something that I'd be very, very comfortable with," he said.

He also told Walters that he welcomes his wife's involvement in policy decisions during the campaign "to the extent she wants to be…I couldn't have a better adviser." When asked if she will sit in on policy meetings, Judith said: "if [Rudy] asks me to, yes. And certainly in the areas of health care."

But on Friday, seeking to clarify his comments that she might play a significant role in his administration, Giuliani said his wife will not be a member of his Cabinet or attend most high-level meetings.

Although usually a very private person, Judith Giuliani has had her fair share of headlines, most recently surrounding the news that, like her husband, she has been married three times.

She recently confirmed her previously undisclosed marriage to Jeffrey Scott Ross, whom she married in 1974 when she was 19. The couple divorced in 1979. She said she wasn't trying to keep that first marriage hidden.

"Rudy and I have never had any secrets from each other. … Rudy and I have always known everything about each other," she said. "I have just recently begun -- I think they call it in the political world -- being 'rolled out publicly.' … And when I was asked, we discussed it. That was my decision."

Rudy is now leading the Republican polls as a presidential candidate. He may be one of the most recognizable faces in New York, but few people know much about his wife.

Born in the small town of Hazleton, Pa., and of Italian descent, she has a college-age daughter named Whitney. At 52 years old, she's 10 years younger than her husband, who is the father of two college-age children, Andrew and Caroline.

Long before she was "rolled out publicly," Judith had a career as a registered nurse. She told Walters that she became a nurse because she "loved caring for people," and that her nursing skills were still helpful today.

"It's one of the best decisions I ever made, Barbara. … That skill set has transferred, for me, to many aspects of our life."

She married her second husband, Bruce Nathan, in 1979. They divorced in the early 1990s. Nathan was a wealthy man, and when the marriage ended, Judith said her finances, and her life, drastically changed.

"I became a single working mom, something I'm very proud of. I had to re-enter the work force after, oh, gosh, more than a decade after being a wife and mother. … It was an incredible growth period, Barbara, and I look back on it now and I'm so happy that I had that time period, because it made me such a much stronger person."