Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s daughter, Chiara, bares her soul about her struggle with drug abuse and depression in a candid video released by her dad’s transition team on Christmas Eve.
Wearing a headband and speaking straight into the camera, Chiara reveals that she has a therapist and underwent outpatient treatment in New York City to help her stop drinking alcohol and smoking pot.
“Removing substances from my life; it’s opened so many doors for me,’’ the college sophomore says in the slickly produced, five-minute video. “I was actually able to participate in my dad’s campaign, and that was the greatest thing ever.
“You know, now I’m doing well in school and actually getting to explore things that aren’t just partying,’’ she adds.
Chiara discloses that she suffered “clinical depression” and anxiety throughout her adolescence. The environmental-studies major at Santa Clara University in California suggests she began drinking and taking drugs before college. “It didn’t start out as a huge thing for me, but then it became a really huge thing for me,” she says.
“I kind of just thought that all my problems would go away if I just got on a plane and flew 3,000 miles.”
She says that “getting sober is always a positive thing,” even though “it’s not easy.”
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But it’s so worth it,” Chiara says as piano music plays in the background.
She notes that her mom, Chirlane, “was trying really hard to help me with any little thing she could,” and adds, “My dad was doing the same, but obviously, he was really busy.”
The video, which was posted on YouTube, also features a series of full-frame, white-on-black messages, including, “Approximately 3.1 million Americans need treatment for a substance-abuse problem.”
De Blasio and his transition team refused to answer questions about the video, saying that it speaks for itself.
But during an afternoon news conference, de Blasio — who takes office on New Year’s Day — praised his daughter for coming clean about her problems.
“I just want to say that we are all incredibly proud of Chiara,” de Blasio said, standing next to Chiara, his wife and son Dante outside the family’s Brooklyn row house in Park Slope, which they plan to leave to move into Gracie Mansion.
“I think if you look at this video, it speaks to a whole set of challenges that we face in our society, that families face all the time,’’ the mayor-elect said. “And she speaks to it with incredible courage and clarity and with a voice that I think really suggests an incredible wisdom for someone who’s only 19 years old.”
De Blasio said the holiday season was an ideal time for people to “be honest” about “grappling with these issues” because it’s “a time of year when these challenges are probably at their sharpest.
“Families are getting together and . . . people are trying to figure out what to do to help each other,” he said.
“And one of the biggest things to do to help each other is to talk openly about the problem. And it doesn’t happen enough. And it’s time for it to happen.”
Chiara added, “I hope that everybody watches the video.
“I think it speaks for itself, and I sincerely hope that everybody has a safe and happy holiday season.”
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen and Jessica Guzman