They wanted to be left alone, and Rudy Giuliani and Judith Nathan figured they could count on the Hamptons.
Long a haven for stressed-out artists, weary Wall Streeters and summering families, the forested northern shore of Southampton Town appeared to offer the couple near-complete secrecy as their relationship bloomed in the late 1990s -- and continues to do so even today.
"You don't know how many times I get asked this question," writer Steven Gaines, an avowed close friend of Nathan's, said Wednesday regarding details of the couple's Hamptons history. "And my answer is, I can't comment on that."
Gaines, author of "Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons," added of Giuliani and Nathan: "They are two very lucky people. They love each other tremendously."
The unbroken secrecy around Giuliani and Nathan's Hamptons time was not for the press corps' lack of trying. Until Giuliani's public disclosure in the spring of 2000 that his marriage to Donna Hanover was on the rocks, his aides repeatedly brushed off questions about hizzoner's weekend whereabouts.
Mysteries still swirl. Hotel billings from August 2001, disclosed Wednesday, show a Giuliani credit card with charges of nearly $1,400 for lodging at Southampton's Village Latch Inn -- described on its Web site as a 5-acre "celebrity hideaway" where former Vice President Al Gore, commentator Andy Rooney, actor Bill Murray, models Elle McPherson and Lauren Hutton, singer Pat Benatar, model Lauren Hutton and former Mayor David Dinkins, Giuliani's predecessor, have stayed.
No one answered the telephone at the Village Latch Inn last night.
Back in 2000, residents of Nathan's cottage condo overlooking North Sea Harbor told tabloid reporters -- albeit anonymously -- that burly, plainclothes members of Giuliani's security detail frequently were seen waiting around in the parking lot in unmarked vehicles, often leaving their engines running.
Other press accounts show that Giuliani, a golfer, was spotted teeing off at the exclusive Noyac Golf Club just up the road from Nathan's cottage.
Today, Rudy and Judi are regulars at big-ticket East End events such as the Hampton Classic horse show and at fund-raisers for his presidential bid. But back then, the two were never spotted together, their East End trysts kept even from some Hamptons insiders.
"It sure came as a surprise to me," said Dan Rattiner, publisher of the weekly magazine Dan's Papers. "I had never seen him in the Hamptons prior to when he went public to Judi Nathan. Then, when it was said who it was, there were people saying, 'Oh, yeah, she has a place out in the Hamptons.'"