love and war

De Blasio Isn’t Going to Say Too Much More About Chiara’s Struggles

Last week, New York City mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s transition team released a video of his daughter, Chiara, describing her struggles with depression, and pot and alcohol abuse. Likely because it was Christmas Eve, the press and the public commended the 19-year-old for her candor and bravery, and left the story alone for a few days, but now the holiday is over and the inevitable questions about the circumstances surrounding Chiara’s disclosure are coming up.

First, the De Blasios paid for the production of the video, which was made by the campaign consultant responsible for the famous Dante ad. When asked if his daughter had used drugs other than marijuana, De Blasio declined to offer details, saying, “I think the video speaks for itself. It says exactly what happened and how it happened.” He also dodged a question about whether he had considered dropping his mayoral campaign because of Chiara’s problems. “We’re so proud of our daughter,” De Blasio said. “It took courage. It took strength. It was an incredibly genuine explanation in her own words of what she confronted and how she overcame it.”

Chiara seemed to confirm that in a new Teen Vogue profile, explaining, “It’s part of my temperament to be very straightforward, very blunt, very honest.” While the piece (which was probably mostly written before the video’s release) also doesn’t get into the problems she described, it does reveal some newsworthy information: She’s a metalhead. “Old school metal, thrash metal, death metal, the new wave of British heavy metal,” she said. “In terms of more modern stuff, I’ve gotten into Scandinavian, folk, and Viking metal.” That’s the kind of Chiara-related stuff we hope to keep hearing about.

De Blasio Won’t Offer Details on Chiara’s Issues