Carl Paladino's Wife Opens Up on Love Child

Catherine Paladino is nothing if not the reluctant politician's wife, which makes her interview with the New York Post, in which "she brushed tears from her right eye every few minutes, no matter the topic at hand," a notable one among the recent avalanche of stories about husband Carl. The Post's Maureen Callahan depicts a woman who still smarts at the pain of the death of her son in a car crash last year ... which was quickly followed by Carl telling her he had a 10-year-old daughter with another woman—oh, and her adult children and friends had long known.

The 63-year-old describes a relationship that seemed almost destined (she was set up on two blind dates with him—in the same day), a lawyer who toiled late into the night, a man who, 40 years later, is "tougher, very particular about everything." As for learning about his love child after their 29-year-old son died last year, "When he told me about Sarah ... it was a very short affair, it was 10 years prior, and um, my first thought was, 'How lucky. Every child's a gift.' That was my thought. I wasn't angry, you know." She continues, "I think all of this stuff my grandmother drilled in my head, like, 'To err is human, to forgive divine.' And I think if you're gonna make a mistake, make it on the divine side, you know?" (More Carl Paladino stories.)