Michelle Paterson may be the governor’s wife, but she also has a life independent of her husband.

Born in 1961, 46-year-old Michelle Paige Paterson is a mother of two children. An eldest daughter from her first marriage, 19 year-old Ashley, attends Ithaca College. The first lady and Gov. Paterson’s son Alex is 14.

At age 2 she moved to New York with her family. Her father served in the Air Force.

In 1983 she graduated from Syracuse University, where she majored in speech communication and earned a masters in health services management at the Milano Graduate School.

In 1982 she met David Paterson and 10 years later they were married with 1,000 guests in attendance.

Mrs. Paterson is a health care management expert at the Health Insurance Plan of New York and says she plans to keep her job.

Just hours after becoming the 55th Governor of NY State, David Paterson and his wife Michelle have admitted to both have extramarital affairs during a rough patch in their marriage. Their joint interview appears in the Daily News, in an article written by columnist Juan Gonzalez.

Apparently the Patersons wanted to preempt any further rumors and speculation about affairs. From the Daily News:

 ”This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point,” Paterson conceded in his first interview Saturday. “But I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on.”
In a second interview with Paterson and his wife Monday, only hours after he was sworn in to replace scandal-scarred Eliot Spitzer, Michelle Paterson confirmed her husband’s account.

“Like most marriages, you go through certain difficult periods,” Michelle Paterson said. “What’s important is for your kids to see you worked them out.”

 
Paterson said his affair with one woman started in 1999, lasted two or three years. He disclosed he and the woman sometimes spent time at the Days Inn at Broadway and West 94th Street on the Upper West Side.
But after the affair, Paterson said, “From time to time I used to take Michelle to that hotel” too, when they were trying to revive their marriage–a marriage counselor suggested they do “new and exciting things.” plus it was away from the kids and, Paterson pointed out, “only four subway stops from my Harlem office.” He also denied the “sporadic rumor in Albany that I had a love child” with another woman, declaring it as “just not true.”

It’s unclear what the fallout, if any, will be, but this much is definite: He wasn’t wiring money to a prostitution ring! And Politico’s Ben Smith writes “The general reaction from a quick poll of my New York sources: ‘Yawn.’ Also: Smart, and tough, of Paterson to get it out now.”

The new Governor of New York, former Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, admitted just after being sworn in that he and his wife had had extra-marital affairs for years.

He didn’t pay for the sex though, so it’s all good.

“This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point,” Paterson conceded in his first interview Saturday. “But I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on.”

In a second interview with Paterson and his wife Monday, only hours after he was sworn in to replace scandal-scarred Eliot Spitzer, Michelle Paterson confirmed her husband’s account.

“Like most marriages, you go through certain difficult periods,” Michelle Paterson said. “What’s important is for your kids to see you worked them out.”

The First Couple agreed to speak publicly about the difficulties in their marriage in response to a variety of rumors about Paterson’s personal life that have been circulating in Albany and among the press corps in recent days.

They spoke in the governor’s office even as scores of friends, family members and political supporters were celebrating in the corridors of the Capitol his ascension to the state’s highest post.

Given the call-girl scandal that erupted last week and forced Spitzer’s stunning resignation, Paterson conceded that top government officials are bound to come under closer scrutiny for their personal actions.

The governor flatly denied what he called a “sporadic rumor in Albany that I had a love child” by another woman. “That’s just not true,” he said.

“Don’t you think he’d take care of a child if he’d had one?” Michelle Paterson said, in obvious disgust over that persistent rumor.

See? He voluntarily admitted he’s a disgusting creep. It’s so much nicer that way. What an upright guy, and a bold contrast to the disgrace that Eliot Spitzer left behind.

 Source: Gothamist

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