Mario Cuomo - Family and Personal Life

Family and Personal Life

Cuomo has been married for more than fifty years to his wife Matilda. They have five adult children: Andrew, Maria, Margaret, Madeline, and Christopher.

His elder son, Andrew Cuomo, was married to Kerry Kennedy (divorced in 2003), a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. He served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton from 1997–2001. In an attempt to succeed his father, he ran as Democratic candidate for New York Governor in 2002, but withdrew before the primary after criticizing Republican incumbent George Pataki's leadership after the terrorist attacks on the city on 9/11 the previous year. He remained on the ballot as Liberal Party candidate but did not campaign, instead endorsing Democratic nominee Carl McCall in the general election, and received only a very small percentage of the vote as Pataki was re-elected. In November 2006, Andrew Cuomo was elected New York State Attorney General, replacing Eliot Spitzer, who was elected Governor of New York. Andrew Cuomo was elected governor on November 2, 2010 and inaugurated on January 1, 2011.

Cuomo's younger son, Chris Cuomo, is a journalist on the ABC Network newsmagazine Primetime and anchors news segments and served as co-host on Good Morning America. He was picked as one of People Magazine's 50 Sexiest People in 1997.

His daughter Maria Cuomo Cole is married to Kenneth Cole, a well known New York fashion designer. She is Chair of the Board of HELP USA, a charitable foundation.

Cuomo is an avid player of fantasy baseball. He always has an Italian player on his team, regardless of how many Italian players are available or how well they are doing.

Cuomo is the author of Why Lincoln Matters (2004) and sits on the Advisory Council of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He is a co-editor of Lincoln on Democracy, an anthology of Abraham Lincoln's speeches.

In 1996, he wrote Reason to Believe. He also wrote a narrative essay entitled "Achieving the American Dream" about his parents' struggles coming to America and how they prospered.

At its 1983 commencement ceremonies, Barnard College awarded Cuomo its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction.

Cuomo is currently of counsel at the New York law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Since 1996, Cuomo has served on the board of Medallion Financial Corp., a lender to purchasers of taxi medallions in leading cities across the U.S. He was named to the board through his personal and business relationship with Andrew M. Murstein, president of Medallion.

Cuomo was the first guest on the long-running CNN talk show Larry King Live in 1985.