Here’s part II of my interview with Judith Newman
MT: Let’s talk about your husband. You made him look kind of well, like a jerk. Was he really that detached and un-nurturing and did (do) you guys really live in separate apartments?
JN: Well, depends who you ask. Fortunately, you’re asking me, so the answer is: Yes. He really was impossible. (And you should have seen what he was like before the book’s editor asked me to revise it; as she told me, “Nobody will believe you stayed with him.”) What he might say to you, though, is: “How many men are enthusiastic about having twins at 68?” I will say this in his defense: I think many men secretly have little tolerance for babies; he was just worse at hiding his distaste than most. As the boys grew older he became more and more engaged, and more loving, to the point where I think he’s now a Daddy bore. I’m quite sure that the guys he used to hang around with in his gym flee when they see him coming, because they know they’re going to be regaled with the latest adventures of Henry and Gus. Oh, and yes: we still have separate apartments. It’s probably the only thing that’s held our marriage together.
MT: The twins were born a few days after 9/11 and in your book you write, “On September 11th I woke up to what sounded like a plane flying into my window… there was a thud and people on the street screaming.” I can’t imagine what that was like, did you wonder if you and the babies would make it out alive?
JN : No, that thought never crossed my mind. As odd as this sounds, the events of 9/11, even though they happened less than half a mile away, felt like they were happening at a remove – that’s what life in NYC is like. That day friends of mine who lived near the World Trade Center came up to my apartment, and we all went out to lunch, and felt a little like we were all in a movie. The reason I put off giving birth was that the boys were due to be born at NYU Hospital, and that was the hospital where the injured from the towers were supposed to be taken; I just assumed there would be chaos. There really wasn’t because, tragically, there were few-to-no injured people to be taken there, since people were either fine or dead.
Part III to follow.