The two met at a garden party, where Cuomo, fit and charming, arrived with his three daughters in tow, which immediately caught Sandra’s attention. Initially, she tried to set Cuomo up with some of her friends, as he was emerging from a difficult divorce from Kerry Kennedy.

However, it didn’t take long for both of them to realize they wanted to be together instead. They dated secretly for over a year, keeping their relationship under wraps from friends and family.

Eventually, the secrecy became too much, and they publicly acknowledged their romance, moving into Sandra’s home in Chappaqua, New York.Unlike her first marriage, Sandra noted that life with Cuomo was anything but glamorous.

”We do not have full-time help,” she told New York Magazine and added: ”We are normal people. Our basement flooded this morning. Two weeks ago, the snow melted and came in between the floors, and we had buckets in the living room.”

When Cuomo became the 56th Governor of New York in 2011, Sandra took on the role of the state’s de facto first lady. While she largely maintained a low profile during most of his first two terms, she later emerged as a passionate advocate for cancer screening after her own battle with the disease.

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