NYC’s First Lady Rama Duwaji apologizes for teenage posts, says her work is her focus

A month after saying his wife, Rama Duwaji, was a “private person” with no role in his administration, Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced renewed questions Thursday after she apologized in a recent interview for “harmful” posts she wrote as a teenager.

The questions followed a Hyperallergic profile of the city’s first lady, published Wednesday; it was Duwaji’s first interview since Mamdani took office. In it, she addressed the publication of “old tweets I wrote as a teenager,” saying she felt “a lot of shame” over language that was “so harmful to others.” She added that “being 15 doesn’t excuse it” and said she was “truly sorry.”