Mayor Adams has been hitting the books.
Hizzoner said Thursday that he “enjoyed reading” a book Jasmine Ray recently published about their romantic relationship, which played out before he appointed her to a senior role in his administration.
“Jas has always led with integrity. Writing this book wasn’t easy, but she wanted people to understand the work, the mission, and the human side behind the headlines,” the mayor, who’s currently in Albania, wrote in a post on X.
“I respect her for that and I enjoyed reading it. I hope all will read the book.”
The mayor’s endorsement of Ray’s tell-all, “Political Humanity,” comes after he abandoned his bid for reelection last week as he faced record low approval ratings amid continued fallout from his federal corruption indictment and surrounding controversies.
Ray, who served in the newly-created role of Adams’ director of sports, wellness and recreation until she resigned before the release of her book this past weekend, wrote in the tell-all that she and the mayor dated between 2014 and 2016 after first meeting at a Brooklyn Nets game.
He was Brooklyn’s borough president at the time and was at the time dating Tracey Collins, who used to be a senior official at the city Department of Education until she resigned late last year after coming under internal investigation. .Collins and Adams continued to be involved and have owned a home together in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
The first time she slept with Adams, Ray wrote, was in his Brooklyn Borough Hall office after an event they attended together.
“He had made up his mind. He closed the distance like a man stepping into something he couldn’t walk back from,” Ray recounted.
“And then he said, ‘Fuck it.’”
She also recalled Adams would bring her to Woodland, a since-shuttered Brooklyn restaurant run by Robert and Zhan Petrosyants, twin brothers who’ve had run-ins with the law and the mayor counts as friends. She wrote she and Adams would go to Woodland “about three times a week,” always sitting at the same table in a balcony section.
The relationship got so serious, Ray, 42, wrote, that the mayor told her: “You’re going to be my wife.”
Adams, 65, remains unmarried.
According to Ray’s book, Adams summoned her to his office in 2016 and told her they had to break up.
While she said she was heartbroken by the split, Ray wrote she remained friends with Adams and supported him as a politician. She describes him as a caring and compassionate man who has gotten an unfair shake in media coverage of his administration.
Years after they broke things off, Ray wrote that Adams reconnected with her just before he became mayor in January 2022.
He told Ray he wanted her to join him at City Hall, she wrote, resulting in her appointment to be the director of the mayor’s office of sports, wellness and recreation. She was the first person to ever serve in that position and pulled a nearly $170,000 city government salary while also working as a consultant for a private daycare in Brooklyn, a moonlighting gig the mayor granted her a waiver to be able to do.
She wrote they weren’t romantically involved while at City Hall.
Since the release of Ray’s book, Adams has barely appeared in public.
On Monday, Adams, who has yet to disclose his next career move, traveled to Albania to meet with that country’s prime minister and other local government officials. Adams, whose trip mostly got comped by Albania’s government, was expected to return to New York late Thursday.
