Shortly after Eric Adams won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City in 2021, he texted his former lover, Jasmine Ray, and urgently asked her to meet him.
“I’m going to be mayor of New York City, and I don’t want to do this without you,” he wrote, in a message Ms. Ray recounted in a self-published book to be released on Sunday.
She immediately drove from her home in Pennsylvania to her mother’s house on Staten Island and took a walk along the shore with the future mayor of New York City. They excitedly discussed ideas for his mayoralty, she said.
A year later, he appointed her as the city’s first director of the Mayor’s Office of Sports, Wellness and Recreation, a $160,000-a-year job created by the City Council months before he took office.
Ms. Ray, 42, worked for the city for nearly three years until her resignation took effect on Friday, two days before Mr. Adams, 65, exited the mayor’s race.
The couple said they never revived their decade-old relationship. Still, her proximity to the mayor led to her being interviewed by federal prosecutors in his corruption case.
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The post She Loved Eric Adams. She Kept It a Secret. Now She’s Talking. appeared first on New York Times.
