Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms revealed that COVID-19 had infected her own house in July 2020, at the height of her national prominence. Her test results were positive. Derek, her spouse, and one of their four kids had also done so. She was in a public dispute with Governor Brian Kemp about reopening the state, claiming Georgia had moved too quickly, so the disclosure came at a difficult time. The argument had a face all of a sudden, and it was seated at her dinner table.
The subsequent infection was more difficult than the original. Bottoms revealed in a public post nearly two months later that her husband had scheduled an MRI early in the day because he was still experiencing crippling symptoms long after the virus was supposed to have cleared. Millions of American families would eventually recognize the story that was revealed by that one detail: a healthy, employed Home Depot executive who was still ill weeks later and submitted to scans in an effort to find answers. Long COVID was not yet well-known. It was simply the thing that would not go away.
Derek Bottoms did not pursue the limelight. In 1991, during their first year of law school at Georgia State, he met Keisha. Three years later, at a Methodist church in southwest Atlanta, they were married. He developed a more sedate career, managing employment procedures at Home Depot for more than 20 years, while she rose from prosecutor to judge to city council to mayor to the Biden White House. They recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary, and she wrote, “I married my best friend.” That kind of resilience is a minor marvel in and of itself in politics.
Naturally, the family is not alone in the rumor mill. Claims of a much more serious diagnosis for Derek have been circulated on low-quality websites; neither the family’s statements nor any reliable source have mentioned this. In the same way that similar websites have created diseases for HGTV hosts and retired athletes, it’s possible that these pages are just collecting search traffic. Readers are entitled to this distinction: the mayor’s own words are used to document the COVID ordeal; everything else is just noise.
The family has openly discussed a different kind of struggle. The couple’s inability to conceive, years of fertility treatments and surgeries, and the adoptions that created their family of four children were all discussed in Bottoms’ 2026 memoir. She has also been open about her anxiety and ADHD, discussing her lifelong struggle to fall asleep and her 3 a.m. work sessions. This seems to be a household where difficult things are eventually named on their own timetable.
Now more than ever, timing is crucial. Bottoms received 56% of the vote in a six-way primary to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia in May. An election is scheduled for November. The health of her spouse, the privacy of her family, and her own ability—her declared word of the year, appropriately—will all be put to the test under the harshest scrutiny possible in American politics. It’s difficult to avoid concluding that this family has already endured more hardship than a campaign.
