- Rudy Giuliani's ex-wife says that he was "always falling" due to his excessive drinking.
- One fall caused a scar bad enough that Giuliani covered it with makeup for an "SNL" appearance.
- That's according to Andrew Kirtzman's new book, which was obtained by The Guardian.
After losing the Republican nomination for president in 2008, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was "always falling shitfaced somewhere," his third ex-wife Judith Giuliani said, according to Andrew Kirtzman's new book obtained by The Guardian.
Rudy Giuliani was drinking and in therapy to cope with his dream of being president crushed after placing fourth in Florida and dropping out of the race, Judith Giuliani told Kirtzman for his book, "Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor."
"He just could not get over it," she told Kirtzman.
Giuliani told The New York Times in 2018 that he "spent a month at Mar-A-Lago relaxing" after exiting the race.
But Judith Giuliani described a depressive stint and a lot of drinking at Donald Trump's South Florida residence. She told Kirtzman that she felt Rudy was "drinking to dull the pain." "As a nurse," she said, she viewed what was happening to him as "clinical depression."
After dropping out of the presidential race, Rudy Giuliani's first public appearance was on an episode of "Saturday Night Live." He made "self-deprecating jokes about the failure of his campaign" but "his makeup barely hid a large scar above his right eyebrow," Kirtzman wrote. Judith Giuliani said he got that scar after falling as he climbed out of a car.
That said, Kirtzman wrote, Giuliani's ex-wife, "was known to exaggerate, and the depth of his depression is something that only she and Giuliani knew for certain."
Giuliani has denied having a drinking problem and Kirtzman wrote that his friends didn't think he had an issue either.
"While Giuliani was always fond of drinking scotch with his cigars while holding court at the Grand Havana or Club Mac, his friends never considered him a problem drinker," Kirtzman wrote.
However, talk of his drinking also came up at a House committee hearing about the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, when Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, testified that Giuliani was "definitely intoxicated" on election night. Giuliani, for his part, said he was drinking Diet Coke.
Kirtzman's book is scheduled to be released in September.