Melissa DeRosa, Andrew Cuomo relationship: The love story between NYC mayoral candidate and his former top aide

As New York City barrels toward its high-stakes mayoral election this November, the campaign trail is ablaze—and no figure commands more intrigue or controversy than former governor Andrew Cuomo.

Once forced to resign in disgrace, Cuomo is now leading in the polls as he attempts a dramatic political resurrection. But it isn’t just his policies or polling numbers making headlines—it’s his past, and particularly, his once-rumored and now confirmed “emotional romantic relationship” with longtime aide Melissa DeRosa.

“Emotionally intimate”: What the testimony revealed

For years, the relationship between Cuomo and DeRosa was marked by speculation. She was his closest advisor, often the last person in the room, and a fixture during his nationally televised COVID-19 briefings.

In Albany, people whispered about their bond—whether it went beyond politics—but no one had definitive proof.Their connection began in the trenches of New York State politics. DeRosa, a seasoned political operative from a prominent Democratic family, rose swiftly through the ranks to become Cuomo’s top aide—eventually holding the powerful title of secretary to the governor. Over the years, their bond became something both undeniable and, for a long time, undefined.

The biggest supporter in the room

In public, DeRosa was fiercely loyal, often the voice behind Cuomo’s major crisis responses—from battling the Trump administration during COVID-19 to managing the state’s increasingly scrutinized nursing home data. In private, however, the relationship appears to have evolved into something more emotionally intimate—complicated by their respective marriages and positions of power.According to unsealed 2021 testimony recently made public in 2025 by the New York Post, former Cuomo aide Josh Vlasto testified that DeRosa had confided in him about her emotional connection to the governor: “There was a conversation with Melissa where she told me at one point that she had an emotional romantic relationship with the Governor… She said we had an emotionally intimate relationship.”DeRosa made clear, according to Vlasto, that the line of physical intimacy had not been crossed. But their closeness had become the subject of internal chatter and even external speculation. In March 2021, the Daily Mail prepared to publish a photo of the two having a cozy dinner in Albany. Internally, Cuomo, DeRosa, and Chris Cuomo, then of CNN, discussed how to get ahead of the optics.Even under oath later that year, when investigators asked Cuomo if he’d ever had a romantic relationship with a staffer, his answer was blunt: “No.”

Yet the full story wasn’t so simple

DeRosa, whose marriage to Matt Wing was already under strain, later reflected in her 2023 memoir What’s Left Unsaid that she had been navigating “a deeply personal unraveling” while trying to hold together a collapsing administration. Her lawyers later clarified that the relationship with Cuomo had been emotional, not physical, shaped by years of high-pressure proximity, mutual trust, and blurred boundaries.

“Her marriage had been really struggling and had effectively ended with Matt,” Vlasto told investigators. “That is why there was room in her life for a relationship—however you want to describe it—with the Governor.”By the time Cuomo resigned in August 2021, DeRosa had already stepped down. In her resignation letter, she called her time in government “the greatest honor of my life.” She made no mention of the man at the center of it.But years later, in early 2025, her presence at a Cuomo fundraiser reignited public curiosity. Though no longer part of his official team, DeRosa was seen attending a breakfast in support of Cuomo’s campaign to become New York City’s next mayor. That same week, her ex-husband Matt Wing’s communications firm signed on to help one of Cuomo’s political rivals—City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. While it seems that Melissa is still a supporter of Cuomo, there is no immediate news on their current relationship status.