Mayor admits to affair with security officer
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry said this week that she had an extramarital affair with a police officer in charge of her security detail. In an interview with The Ten
nessean, the 54-year-old Democrat apologized “for the harm I’ve done to the people I love and the people who counted on me.”
She said the affair with police Sgt. Robert Forrest started in the spring or summer of 2016, months after she entered office the previous fall. Forrest submitted his retirement papers Jan. 17. His final day was Wednesday.
“We had an affair, and it was wrong, and we shouldn’t have done it,” Barry said. “He was part of my security detail, and as part of that responsibility, I should have gone to the (police) chief, and I should have said what was going on, and that was a mistake. People that we admire can also be flawed humans, and I’m flawed.”
Barry and Forrest are both married. Barry said the relationship was discovered during conversations between their spouses and private discussions.
Forrest, 58, was a regular presence with the mayor during public events, travel and even trips abroad.
According to public records obtained by The Tennessean, thousands of taxpayer dollars covered Forrest’s travel with the mayor on city business.
Though several of the trips included other members of the mayor’s office, nine of the trips were taken by only Barry and Forrest, including a trip to Greece in September.
Barry told her staff about the affair Wednesday afternoon, then held a 16-minute news conference that evening, which several of the mayor’s aides and a handful of council members watched.
Barry addressed the news media standing on a stage alone without her husband, Bruce, in the room.
Barry said she no longer sees Forrest but declined to say when the relationship ended. “Yes, it’s over. Yes, it’s over,” Barry said.
During the interview, Barry said she won’t resign or take a leave of absence.
“This is a bad day, and there’s going to be more bad days, but this is not my worst day,” she said.
Barry became a national voice in the country’s opioid crisis last year after the death of her 22-year-old son, Max, who died from a mix of drugs that included opioids.