Matilda Cuomo, the 90-year-old founder of the New York State Mentorship programme, was removed from its advisory council and every mention of her name was wiped from the description of the organisation. The omission of her name follows the scandal involving her son, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the New York Post has reported, citing anonymous sources.
"It's a sad day when politics has gotten so ugly that it would come down to removing the name of 90-year-old former First Lady Matilda Cuomo", one of the sources told the newspaper.
The programme was first founded by Matilda Cuomo in 1984 when her husband, Mario Cuomo, held the governor's office, but was later ended when he failed to win re-election for a fourth term in 1994. Andrew Cuomo restarted the mentorship in 2015 and installed his mother as the honorary chairperson and a member of the advisory council.
New York's Office of Children and Family Services, which oversees the programme, said the removal of Matilda Cuomo's name from the mentorship's website was a mistake and promised it will be rectified.
"This was an oversight, and we are addressing it now that it has been brought to our attention", office spokesperson Jeannine Smith said.
Has Anything Changed?
The archived snapshots of the New York State Mentorship's "About" webpage from January 2022 indeed show that Matilda Cuomo's name is not mentioned anywhere – including on the list of advisory council members. The actual version of the said webpage mentions her as the founder of the original mentorship in 1984 in one line, but Cuomo is still nowhere to be found on the advisory council.
New York's Office of Children and Family Services did not mention her removal from it or potential reinstatement.
Despite Matilda Cuomo's name formally being returned to the mentorship's website, it's a far cry from the way she was mentioned prior to the Andrew Cuomo scandal. The archived version of the page from May 2021 not only mentions her as an advisory council member, but also includes an extensive portion dedicated to Matilda Cuomo's biography and her work in the mentorship programme.
Her apparent expulsion from the mentorship organisation came in the wake of the sexual harassment allegations pressed by 11 women against Andrew Cuomo, forcing him to resign from office in 2021. Andrew Cuomo continues to reject all the accusations against him, calling them biased and inaccurate. In addition, his brother, Chris Cuomo was removed from CNN, where he hosted a prime time show, after his involvement in helping Andrew to deal with the fallout from the aforementioned accusations was revealed.