Critics crossed the line, says mayoress

Jane Williams with husband Andrew Williams. Photo / Kellie Blizard

Jane Williams, the Mayoress of North Shore City, says her husband Andrew is a social person who enjoys a few drinks but does not have an alcohol problem.

Yesterday, she described her husband as emotional and herself as an objective person, which she said was useful in situations like the past few days.

Since Sunday, Mayor Williams has come under fire for drinking at two restaurants in Takapuna last Thursday, allegedly urinating outside the council offices and driving his mayoral car from the council carpark to his home in Campbells Bay.

Mrs Williams, a nurse and member of the clinical management team at Harbour Health, told the Herald that her husband's critics had crossed the line of the normal rough-and-tumble of political life.

Not only had a Sunday newspaper reporter stalked her husband in a "deplorable" way, she said, but the media had turned up at their home that day with cameras rolling when only their children were at home.

"It was an invasion of privacy over an allegation by a tabloid paper," the mayoress said.

Mrs Williams said she fully supported her husband through what she believed was a politically motivated campaign and his decision to stand for the Super City.

"He is more inclined to be emotional because it is a personal thing to him, obviously, but I can stand back and see it for what it is and say, 'Let's not get too upset', put it into context, move on and get over it.

"He said to me [that] life is always exciting with him, never a dull moment, and that would be true.

"I have always supported him whatever career move he has decided to follow. That really goes with the territory as a wife."

The couple, both aged 51, have their 30th wedding anniversary coming up next year. They have a 23-year-old son and two daughters, aged 21 and 16, all living at home.

Asked about her husband's attitude to alcohol, Mrs Williams said he did not have a problem.

"He's a social person and obviously he enjoys to have a few drinks with friends and has to cope with many, many official engagements and functions where a glass of wine is pretty much the only thing you can put a hand on."