"About two months ago, after another stale Saturday night of binge-watching television at their Brooklyn home, Bill de Blasio and..."

"... [his wife] Chirlane McCray surprised themselves. It began with an offhand remark: 'Why aren’t you lovey-dovey anymore?' Mr. de Blasio, the former New York City mayor, asked, according to Ms. McCray.... It moved quickly, both said, into the sort of urgently searching dialogue that had been necessary for years but avoided until that moment: a full accounting of their relationship, what they wanted, what they were not getting. 'You can’t fake it,' Ms. McCray said Tuesday from their kitchen table. 'You can feel when things are off,' Mr. de Blasio said, 'and you don’t want to live that way.' They made their decision that night...."

From "Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray Are Separating/Mr. de Blasio’s marriage helped fuel his campaign for mayor of New York, and his intense personal and political bond with his wife drew admiration and scrutiny" (NYT).

"They are not planning to divorce, they said, but will date other people. They will continue to share the Park Slope townhouse where they raised their two children, now in their 20s — the vinyl-sided hub of a thoroughly modern political family whose mixed-race symbolism helped send a spindly progressive long shot to City Hall...."

Were they ever "lovey-dovey"?  

“For the guy who took the chance on a woman who was an out lesbian and wrote an article called ‘I Am a Lesbian,’” Mr. de Blasio said, “there was a part of me that would at times say, ‘Hmmm, is this like a time bomb ticking? Is this something that you’re going to regret later on?’ So I always lived with that stuff.” 

Wasn't this a political alliance? It's served its function. The political career completed its arc, the children are grown. The couple are still living in the same house and not divorcing. It just seems that they want to be out about seeing other people. But perhaps NYT readers will relate to the story of "stale Saturday night of binge-watching television at their Brooklyn home" and an old couple suddenly getting into a deep discussion about their relationship and making "a decision that night." 

A few weeks after their impromptu session amid that Saturday night of television, they exchanged written messages outlining “what we felt about the moment,” Mr. de Blasio said. After that, he said, ground rules were established: “what’s cool, and what’s not cool, and whatever else.”

And? What are the rules? 

“One of the things we’re saying to the world is we don’t need to possess each other,” he added.

Perhaps they've had other relationships all along, and there's someone in the picture who isn't comfortable with hiding.  

Ms. McCray asked dryly if their phone numbers could be included in the newspaper.

“Can I put a picture from the gym in there?” Mr. de Blasio asked. (He added that he was “not a believer” in online dating.)

They want it to be known that they are dating... or — please put it this way — suddenly available for dating. Well, then, let's see the gym picture. I heard he'd spindly.

As the conversation neared its end, the former mayor pulled out his phone to play a song called “Mango,” saying it might best explain their feelings now.

“I don’t want nothing but you,” it went. “Getting what you need / Even if it ain’t from me.”

Mr. de Blasio hummed a bit from his chair. Ms. McCray danced behind him, gazing ahead.

“Isn’t that beautiful?” he said.

Yeah, it's a totally beautiful vignette straight out of a romcom, replete with soundtrack. The lady readers of the NYT are blissing out, dreaming of getting Bill's number while allyishly supporting whatever it is Ms. McCray would like to do.

 

ADDED: I'm giving this post my "men in shorts" tag because of that video, which visually answers the age-old question "Who's wearing the pants in that relationship?"