Marion Cunningham 
Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit who was removed from office and convicted perjury gave his first media interview in more than a year to reporters from The Final Call, the weekly news magazine of the Nation of Islam.
The interview covered various subjects ranging from the future of Detroit to the national politics. However, Kilpatrick’s comments about his former Chief of Staff and lover Christine Beatty are creating the most buzz.
Kilpatrick and Beatty had a highly publicized affair. Beatty was also convicted of perjury for not admitting to the affair during a whistle blower lawsuit in 2008.
Below is an excerpt of the interview. Click here to view video of the interview.
FCN: I’m glad you mentioned your family. Clearly, they have stood by you and your wife has demonstrated tremendous strength as well as your children with you being in such a public spot. As it relates to Ms. Christine Beatty, the sister who was in the news related to her relationship with you, do you have contact with her, do you all talk?
KK: I’ll simply say, I have talked to her since all of this stuff has happened. I try to make sure that she understands that I still care about her very deeply and I simply back up and say first that, a lot of times when women get caught in a situation like that, they are perceived as a wh— and sorry and I just think that is so unfair. It takes two to tango they say but I think even other than that she is a very good person. She is incredibly brilliant, a 4.0 student, masters (degree) and we made some bad decisions and we are living with the consequences of those decisions. I respect her tremendously and love her and wish her the best. That has been an incredible situation, somebody has been in your life since ninth grade, this is my friend, this wasn’t a person that just showed up. Ninth grade and now out of your life and having her own and you have to really figure out how to move forward with your wife and children. So I wish her the best. I have tried to keep tabs and make sure that she is doing all right. But as far as the kind of interaction we had, we will never really have again.
Read full story
