Rudy Giuliani’s 2 Children: What to Know About Andrew and Caroline

Rudy Giuliani was once hailed as “America’s mayor” and considered a presidential hopeful; now, Donald Trump’s onetime attorney is facing more than a dozen felony charges in relation to interference in the 2020 presidential election.

Outside of his political fall from grace, Giuliani’s personal life has also experienced ups and downs — including three marriages, each ending in divorce. But his relationship with Donna Hanover resulted in two children: a son, Andrew Giuliani, 37, and a daughter, Caroline Giuliani, 33.

Giuliani first met Hanover, a television news anchor, on a blind date in Miami in 1982, the New York Times reported. At the time, Giuliani was on a trial separation from his first wife, Regina Peruggi, who was also his second cousin. Six weeks later, Giuliani proposed to Hanover in Disney World after requesting a legal separation from Peruggi. After his first marriage was officially annulled in 1983, Giuliani and Hanover were married in New York City in April 1984.

“It was a whirlwind,” Hanover told New York Magazine about her relationship with Giuliani. “He was smart and interesting. And I wanted children. I was 32 at the time.”

Hanover got her wish, and the couple had two children during their 16-year marriage: Andrew in 1986 and Caroline in 1989. However, Giuliani and Hanover split in 2000 after rumors of infidelity on the mayor’s part. Their divorce was finalized in 2002 after a lengthy and contentious court battle.

Both Andrew, a political commentator, and Caroline, a filmmaker, have made headlines in recent years in relation to their father’s connection to Trump. Giuliani, who in 2021 had his law license suspended and was sued over false 2020 election claims, has been a close ally and adviser of the former president — even serving on his personal legal team when he was in the White House.

Caroline, an outspoken Democrat, wrote an anti-Trump essay for Vanity Fair in 2020, imploring American voters to “stand with me in the fight to end Donald Trump’s reign of terror” and “vote this toxic administration out of office.” In the same essay, Caroline was also critical of her father’s role in Trump’s camp, referring to him as “a polarizing mayor who became the president’s personal bulldog.”

Linda Cataffo/NY Daily News Archive/Getty

Conversely, Andrew — who worked in Trump’s White House and has expressed his own political aspirations — has been undeterred by the recent controversies surrounding his father. “My father is one of my best friends,” Andrew told the Washington Post during his 2022 New York gubernatorial campaign. “I’m as proud now of my father as I’ve ever been.”

From their childhood spent in Gracie Mansion to their current political leanings, here is everything to know about Rudy Giuliani’s two children, Andrew Giuliani and Caroline Giuliani.

Andrew Harold Giuliani, 37

Lev Radin/Anadolu Agency/Getty

Giuliani and Hanover welcomed their first child, a son named Andrew Harold Giuliani, on Jan. 30, 1986, in N.Y.C. At the time, his father, then 41, was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, while Hanover, then 35, was an anchor at local news station WPIX. According to the New York Times, the couple were “overjoyed” at becoming parents.

“When it happens late, you sort of appreciate it a little more,” Giuliani told the Times.

Andrew first caught the public eye when he was 7 years old and stood by his father’s side as he was sworn in as N.Y.C. mayor in 1994. During the ceremony, Andrew stole the spotlight by repeating the oath of office along with his father — then blowing kisses, fist pumping and yawning while Giuliani delivered his inaugural address, according to Politico. His antics were even parodied on Saturday Night Live, with Chris Farley portraying Andrew.

As a teenager, Andrew made a name for himself as a talented golfer: At 15, he played in his father’s place alongside Tiger Woods in the 2001 Buick Classic pro-am tournament, per NBC. He later earned a spot on Duke University’s golf team.

However, Andrew was dismissed from the team in 2008. The then-college junior was reportedly dropped for throwing an apple at a teammate’s face, breaking a golf club and acting “verbally abusive and physically confrontational” toward coaching staff, among other incidents, per Golf Digest. Andrew responded to his removal from the team by suing the university, seeking damages and lifetime access to the university’s golf facilities. (A judge dismissed the lawsuit in March 2010, according to ESPN.)

After a short career as a professional golfer, Andrew followed in his father’s footsteps and turned to politics. In 2017, he was hired by the Trump administration to work in the White House as an associate director in the Office of Public Liaison — despite having no prior political experience. But his father told The Atlantic in 2019 that it “wasn’t the usual ‘hire my kid’ situation.”

“He’s known the president since he was a baby,” Giuliani told the outlet. “Now, did he know him in the first place because he was the mayor’s son? Sure, but they also had a relationship independent of me.”

Andrew Giuliani and Rudy Giuliani during a news conference on June 7, 2022.

Mary Altaffer/AP

During his stint in the White House, Andrew had his West Wing access revoked in 2018 by then-Chief of Staff John Kelly, according to Axios. But Trump, whom Andrew described as “similar to an uncle,” restored his access and promoted Andrew to special assistant to the president, the Washington Post reported.

After Trump left office, Andrew appeared as a political commentator on Newsmax TV before launching his own bid for governor of New York in April 2021. “Outside of anybody named Trump, I think I have the best chance to win and take the state back,” Andrew told the Washington Examiner. “I think there’s a very, very real chance to win.”

Andrew, who had never run for political office before, described the race against then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo as “the fight of the century,” referencing the two families’ long political legacies in the state.

“Giuliani vs. Cuomo. Holy smokes,” he told the New York Post. “It’s Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier. We can sell tickets at Madison Square Garden.”

But Andrew never got the chance to face Cuomo head-on. Cuomo resigned as governor in August 2021 following reports he sexually harassed multiple women. Andrew was defeated by Lee Zeldin in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary.

In his personal life, Andrew wed real estate executive Živilė Rezgytė in July 2017 in N.Y.C. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Grace Juzefa Giuliani, on Nov. 29, 2021. Announcing her birth on Instagram, Andrew called his daughter the “greatest joy we could ever imagine.”

However, the new father came under fire in March 2022 when he referenced his 4-month-old daughter’s genitals while making anti-transgender remarks at a rally, per Business Insider.

Caroline Rose Giuliani, 34

Caroline Rose Guilliani Instagram

In August 1989, Giuliani and Hanover welcomed their second child, a daughter named Caroline Rose Giuliani. At the time, her father was in the midst of his first campaign for N.Y.C. mayor. (He eventually lost in a close race.) After his victory in 1993, Caroline lived in the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, from ages 4 to 12.

According to Caroline, she has had a complicated relationship with her father since she was 12 years old — around the same time that her parents divorced. In a 2020 essay for Vanity Fair, she wrote, “Around the age of 12, I would occasionally get into debates with my father, probably before I was emotionally equipped to handle such carnage.”

She continued, “It was disheartening to feel how little power I had to change his mind, no matter how logical and above-my-pay-grade my arguments were.”

The tension between Giuliani and both of his children continued throughout their teenage years. The former mayor missed Andrew’s high school graduation in 2005 and was noticeably absent from Caroline’s school plays for more than a year, the New York Times reported in 2007. But while Andrew and his father eventually repaired their relationship, Caroline has publicly disagreed with the disgraced former Trump attorney — particularly over politics.

Caroline has supported several Democratic candidates over the years, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In 2016, she posted on her Facebook page that she was “pro-Hillary,” along with an “I’m with her” filter over her profile picture. She confirmed to Politico that the posts were her own, explaining, “I love Hillary; I think she’s by far the most qualified candidate that we’ve had in a long while.”

Donna Hanover and Caroline Giuliani at the NICOLE MILLER Spring 2007 Fashion Show.

Scott Rudd/Patrick McMullan/Getty 

Caroline also openly supported Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ campaign in 2020. In addition to personal social media posts, Caroline’s Vanity Fair essay urged voters to support the Biden ticket. She wrote that she and her father were “multiverses apart, politically and otherwise.”

“I may not be able to change my father’s mind, but together, we can vote this toxic administration out of office,” she added.

Beyond her political passions, Caroline graduated from Harvard University with a degree in film production. According to her resumé, she worked as an executive assistant at both The Gotham Group and Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, as well as an on-set assistant for ABC’s Trophy Wife and 666 Park Avenue, HBO’s Hello Ladies and Netflix’s feature film Someone Great. Her current work is as a “filmmaker in the LGBTQ+ community who tells stories about mental health, sexuality and other stigmatized issues,” according to her 2020 Vanity Fair essay.

Caroline opened up about her own sexuality and path to polyamory in another Vanity Fair essay, published in March 2021. In it, she shared her experience as a “unicorn” — a third partner for couples looking to have a threesome — and how she came to identify as pansexual.

“I am attracted to people based on their presence and energy regardless of their biological sex, gender or gender identity,” she wrote in the essay.

Caroline continued: “I know now that I am empathetic, radically open-minded, profoundly adventurous and fiercely committed to telling stories that reduce the stigma surrounding sexuality and mental health.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education