Lawyer: NYC Mayor's Wife Should Leave Mansion

N E W  Y O R K, May 15, 2001 -- Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says the harsh wordssurrounding his divorce should end, but his attorney accuses themayor's wife of delaying the case so she won't have to move out ofGracie Mansion.

"Why has the case taken so long? Because her strategy is todelay it, delay it, delay it," attorney Raoul Felder said in atelephone interview with The Associated Press on Monday. "Shedoesn't want to move out, but it would be better if she just movedon." About the same time, during a press conference in Milwaukee,where Giuliani is touring schools with other New York Cityofficials, the mayor said the negative rhetoric should stop.

"There shouldn't be harsh words about her. There shouldn't beharsh words about me," said Giuliani, who had previously refusedto talk about the divorce. Giuliani, 56, and his estranged wife, actress Donna Hanover, 51,live at Gracie Mansion with their two children, Andrew, 15, andCaroline, 11. They have been married 16 years.

The divorce, filed by Giuliani last October, had proceededlargely outside the public sphere until last week, when Hanoversought a restraining order to bar the mayor's girlfriend, JudithNathan, 46, from entering Gracie Mansion.

After a judge lifted a gag order sought by Giuliani's lawyers,Felder launched a scathing assault on Hanover's character,lambasting her as a "foolish" and "trivial" woman bent ondestroying the mayor.

"I suppose we're going to have to pry her off the chandelier toget her out of there," Felder said last week. "We're talkingabout a marriage that's been dead for years."

During the weekend, a Giuliani confidante told newspapers themayor had been impotent for the last year due to treatment forprostate cancer so he could not have had sexual relations withNathan — in or out of Gracie Mansion.

Then, on Mother's Day, Felder said Hanover was "howling like astuck pig" after her friends had complained about the verbalattacks.

Hanover's divorce attorney, Victor Kovner, said Monday thatFelder had not filed a request seeking Hanover's removal fromGracie.

"Both sides, from the beginning, have agreed that the entirefamily should live at Gracie until the mayor's term ends" inDecember, Kovner said. "If [Felder] is saying something differentnow, then that is new."

Added Kovner, who was speaking publicly for the first time sincethe gag order was lifted: "It is vindictive to bring yourgirlfriend to the home where your wife and children live. Peopledon't do that."

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische is expected torule on the restraining order request this week.

The issue has raised the question of whether Gracie Mansion,which is the official mayor's residence, is public or private.

Felder said Nathan has never gone into the mansion's bedroomsand only rarely goes to the house for public ceremonies and otherevents.

In recent years, Giuliani and Hanover have essentially splitGracie Mansion — with Hanover taking the master bedroom and theupstairs apartment and Giuliani sleeping in the guest bedroom. Felder said that because of tight space in the guest room, themayor has unsuccessfully tried to convince Hanover to allow him useof the apartment upstairs as well. Gracie, built in 1799, hosts numerous public ceremonies andpress conferences each year. The two-story, federal-style mansionconsists of the Old House, where the family lives, and thereception area, where most public events are held.