Eric Adams staffer details ‘hidden’ romantic relationship with NYC mayor in new book

A former staffer for New York City Mayor Eric Adams is opening up about their past “hidden” romantic relationship in a new tell-all book.

Jasmine Ray, former director of the Mayor’s Office of Sports, Wellness, and Recreation, details her love story with Mayor Adams in “Political Humanity,” which is described as a “Memoir of love, legacy, and New York City Politics.”

“From the shadows of City Hall to the silence of closed-door meetings, Jasmine Ray reveals her untold role in the life of New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams,” reads a website for the self-published e-book, which will be released on Sunday, Oct. 5. “Their hidden relationship—marked by intimacy, sacrifice, and betrayal—mirrors the larger struggles of politics itself: the tension between personal humanity and public expectation.”

The book cover plays up the romantic and political ties to Adams with an illustration of a woman holding a suited man’s bald head, resembling the New York City mayor, and the city skyline across his back.

Ray resigned from her job in City Hall last week, just days before Adams announced that he was ending his re-election campaign for mayor.

A spokesperson for Mayor Adams confirmed to the New York Daily News that Adams and Ray had a romantic relationship “roughly” ten years ago, before he ultimately hired her as his “sports czar.” The spokesperson said Ray and Adams had not been romantic since working together in City Hall.

Adams, 65, is not married; however, he has been in a years-long relationship with his girlfriend, Tracey Collins, a former senior official at the Department of Education. The couple notably attended the 2022 Met Gala together. The Adams spokesperson said Collins knew of Adams’s past relationship with Ray.

In 2022, Adams appointed Ray to head the newly created Office of Sports, Wellness, and Recreation, a role that boasted a $161,400 salary. Before her appointment, Ray operated a daycare center in Brooklyn that received a $4.7 million city contract, according to NBC New York. She received a waiver from the Mayor’s Office that allowed her to continue working for the center as a consultant.

To promote her upcoming memoir, Ray posted an AI-generated video on Instagram resembling a movie trailer that depicts her and Adams’s relationship. The video also depicts Adams’s federal criminal indictment, which was eventually dropped by the Trump administration, implying that she was by his side during the ordeal.

“What would you do if love came with shadows? One woman has to navigate the space between loyalty and betrayal,” a voiceover says in the video. “She stayed silent while the world judged him. They saw the politician, but she saw the man.”