De Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, got together while they were both employed by Mayor Dinkins’ administration. Despite a US travel prohibition, they wed in 1994 and spent their honeymoon in Cuba.
They lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, before relocating to Gracie Mansion, which serves as the official house of the mayor. Dante and Chiara, the couple’s two children, were born.
Chiara is currently a student at Santa Clara University in California, while Dante is a Yale and Brooklyn Technical High School alumnus.
Chirlane McCray: Who Is Bill de Blasio’s Wife?
Chirlane As the wife of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Irene McCray is an American author, editor, and activist. McCray has a big influence on de Blasio’s political career and is regarded as his “closest counselor.”
She also had a lucrative career on her own, serving as chair of the Mayor’s Fund to Progress New York City, and was chosen by her husband to head ThriveNYC, a $1 billion project. McCray has also written speeches for politicians and published poetry.
McCray was raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, where she was born and raised. Her father, Robert Hooper McCray, was an inventory clerk at a military post, and her mother, Katharine Clarissa Eileen, worked in the electronics industry. Despite having Barbadian and St. Lucian ancestry, McCray can trace her grandmother’s last name, Quashie, back to Ghana.
McCray’s family first became the second black family in the neighborhood when they relocated to Longmeadow, Massachusetts, when McCray was ten years old. However, they weren’t well received by the other families in the area, and some even started petitions asking them to leave. McCray struggled in high school since she was frequently the lone black student at her institution.
McCray continued her education at Wellesley College in 1972, when she joined the black feminist group Combahee River Collective. Because of what she learned about the value of activism and community involvement from this experience, it had a significant impact on her life and career.