CARL PALADINO MOVES TO A GLASS HOUSE

Life With Carl: Paladino's Wife Discusses His Love Child (www.gothamist.com)

As the gubernatorial campaign has heated up in the last two weeks, there's been a little mud slinging and a lot of great photo shopping. We've also learned that Carl Paladino's wife, Cathy, is a registered Democrat who's had a complicated relationship with her husband: not only did he have a love child with his mistress, but he told his wife about it the same week that his son Patrick was killed in a car accident. But she's ok with all that: "...my first thought was, 'How lucky. Every child's a gift.' That was my thought. I wasn't angry, you know. I can deal with one family crisis at a time. But to multi-task...It's not that important."

The personal back story between Paladino and his wife has been a compelling storyline every since Paladino first stepped into the race last spring. Neither spouse has shyed away from talking about the their baggage: “Everybody knows anyway. And they should know. They should know the background of people, and they should know that it doesn’t matter how much money you have, how rich you are—things happen. And you deal with them and move on. Every family has problems, " she told the Times. Not that she had too much of a choice in the publicity the campaign brought; "[Paladino's campaign staff] had three words for me: 'Get over it,' " she told The Post.

The child, Sarah, is now a fully integrated part of her family Cathy says, and she's comfortable enough with the situation that she did not object when Carl traveled to Italy last year with Sarah and Sarah's mother Suzanne Brady (who calls Paladino "a great guy."). Her pragmatism extends as far back as her first meeting with Paladino in college, when he insulted her on their first date. Their lives remain just as complicated now; with him on the campaign trail and her remaining at home in Buffalo, they don't see or speak to each other for days at a time: “I have a life,” she said.