Love-struck advertising executive John Partilla regrets sharing news of his wedding to Carol Anne Riddell with The New York Times after many readers recoiled over the paper’s “Vows” column last Sunday.
Partilla defended the couple’s decision to share their story of how they walked out on their former spouses to be with one another. He told Page Six, “We were proud and happy to marry and legitimize our relationship and move forward. We can’t control other people’s judgments.”
But, he conceded, “I think if we had had an indication afterwards of the nerve it would have struck, we obviously would not have shared our life in any way publicly.”
The column related how Partilla and Riddell, a former Ch. 4 reporter, bolted from their original spouses two years after they met at their kids’ pre-kindergarten class in 2006 — and became instantly infatuated. Although they claimed not to have had an affair before dumping their exes, the story depicted them as selfish home wreckers.
“It’s tasteless,” celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder told us. “Every time you see this preordained, ‘love until death do us part’ kind of stuff, they’ll usually be divorced in two years, until she goes to another party and thunder strikes.”
One commenter on the Times Web site fumed, “Is it a sign of our times that personal responsibility to one’s spouse and children takes a back seat to selfish, self-centered love?”
Partilla was previously married to Karla Tafrate, and Riddell was married to Robert Ennis. The Times didn’t name either, leaving readers to wonder whether “the paper of record” had bothered to seek their comments — a minimal journalistic requirement. The Times declined to say.
Tafrate told us, “I have read it, but I have no comment to the story.” Neither Riddell nor Ennis could be reached.
In a statement, the Times said, “The Vows feature gives a close-in account of a wedding every week . . . We don’t attempt to pass judgment on the suitability of the match, the narrative of the romance, the quality of the ceremony or the flavor of the wedding cake.”