Andrew Cuomo, Sandra Lee's live-in couple relationship 'no big deal'

New York, Jan 3 (ANI): It seems nobody has a problem with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his girlfriend Sandra Lee's live-in relationship.

Cuomo, 53, and television cook and author Lee, 44, have no marriage plans as yet, and nobody seems to mind that they are not married.

"The times, they have changed!" the New York Daily News quoted Doug Muzzio, a Baruch College political expert, as saying.

"Divorce or living together without being married is no longer a big deal. I mean, it's the societal norm," he stated.

Though some may still raise eyebrows over Cuomo's relationship with the Food Network star, political rivals or religious leaders have not commented on it.

"I don't hear anybody talking about it, absolutely not. I think it's because neither one of them is openly flaunting their relationship," Michael Long, chairman of the New York Conservative Party said.

Even outspoken Catholic activist Bill Donohue of the Catholic League passed on a chance to decry what some religious conservatives would deem as "living in sin".

"We're not one to pass judgment on how people conduct their personal life or how people celebrate their religion," Donohue said through a spokesman.

While their divorced status prevents them from marrying in a Catholic church (unless both were to get annulments) or receiving Communion, it doesn't stop them from worshiping as Catholics, said a priest who knows Cuomo well.

"He takes his Catholicism very seriously," the priest confided.

Of the Cuomo-Lee live-in relationship, the priest stated: "I'm not going to condemn it, but at the same time, I'm not going to condone it." (ANI)