How did Andrew Cuomo avoid marrying Sandra Lee? Governor reportedly used his status as divorced Roman Catholic
Governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly used his religion as an excuse to avoid getting married to Sandra Lee, who he dated for about a decade before breaking up with her. The two of them lived together and, according to reports, Lee even had a picture of the engagement ring that she one day hoped to receive from Cuomo.
According to a report in Daily Mail, a source who was close to Lee said that Cuomo would tell anyone who asked that he did not feel he could marry again as a divorced Roman Catholic. However, Lee also did not give up on wanting to be the First Lady of New York.
RELATED ARTICLES
The source, a former friend of the couple, described the ring Lee wanted, saying: "It was a huge cushion-cut ring from Bergdorf Goodman." The source also added: "It was the size of a thumbnail and, as you can imagine, very expensive."
Recalling the time when Cuomo was elected for the second term as Governor, the source said, "we were at dinner — it was fall 2014 just before Andrew got elected to his second term as governor — and she pulled out this carefully folded page she had torn from a high-end magazine and told me that was the ring she wanted him to propose with."
The source continued, "but she wanted it changed. I can't remember whether it was an emerald in the picture and she wanted a sapphire or if it was the other way round, but she wanted it custom made."
Lee, now 54 years old, is a celebrity chef. She has denied that she carried any such piece of paper at any point in time. She also denied that Cuomo had cited religion anytime during their relationship as a way of avoiding marriage.
Cuomo was married to Kerry Kennedy — Robert F. Kennedy's seventh child. In 2005, he divorced her after learning that she was cheating on him with his close friend. Cuomo met Lee in 2005 at a Hamptons' cocktail party and their relationship became public a year later when Lee moved from California to New York.
The source revealed that Cuomo and Lee's relationship moved at a glacial pace considering it took him six years to move into Lee's sprawling place in Mt Kisco, 40 miles from Manhattan called Lily's Pond. It was only three years after he moved in with her did Lee even broach the subject of the ring that she would want to be proposed with. The source said, "she really wanted to be First Lady of New York," and added, "I always felt she was jealous of Andrew's close relationship with his mother Matilda — who of course had been First Lady when Mario Cuomo was Governor."
Lee and Cuomo split up in 2019 and at this time, the two of them released a joint statement. It said: "Over the recent past, we have realized that our lives have gone in different directions and our romantic relationship has turned into a deep friendship." Since their split, Lee has sold her house in New York and has moved to Malibu, California.
Cuomo has been accused of inappropriate behavior by three women including his executive Charlotte Bennett and former aide Lindsey Boylan. "I feel awful about it and frankly I am embarrassed by it,' he confessed during a virtual press meet and added, "that's not easy to say. That's the truth. This is what I want you to know and I want you to know this from me directly: I never touched anyone inappropriately." He also defended himself by claiming, hugging and kissing people were "customary way of greeting people" that he followed which his father did too.