Mayor de Blasio took issue with the coverage Monday of statements his wife made in a New York magazine interview that revealed her initial reservations about motherhood.
“The whole situation of how the newspapers handled this is disturbing and inappropriate,” said de Blasio.
“I think both The Post and the Daily News owe Chirlane an apology. I think they owe all of us an apology for absolutely misrepresenting what she said and for caricaturing a reality that I think so many women face.”
The newspapers focused on Chirlane McCray’s account of being a new mom, especially to daughter Chiara, now 19.
“I was 40 years old. I had a life,” McCray said. “Especially with Chiara — will we feel guilt forever more? Of course, yes.”
“But the truth is, I could not spend every day with her. I didn’t want to do that. I looked for all kinds of reasons not to do it.”
De Blasio called his wife “an extraordinary mother.”
The reports, he said, “suggested tremendous misunderstanding of what it is to be a parent, what it is to be a mother.”