Ask Regina Peruggi about Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and she'll tell you she thinks New York is a better place because of him. But ask her what it was like being married to him for 14 years and she says: "It's inappropriate to talk about."
Peruggi, who was married to Giuliani from 1968-82, is the new head of the Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit group contracted by the city to operate most aspects of the park. Her comments came from an interview Friday with The New York Times on the first day of her new job.
"I really have refrained from talking about it," she said. "Everybody has come after me for years on that. It's not something I want to talk about. I just don't think it's appropriate to talk about." She added: "We were both very young. It was a very long time ago."
The Catholic church annulled the marriage because the couple had not obtained a church dispensation required when second cousins marry.