Happy Father's Day, Harold Waldorf!

Next up in our Gossip Girl Father’s Day series, Harold Waldorf, Blair Waldorf’s father.

Harold Waldorf is a successful lawyer living abroad. He was formerly married to Blair’s mother, Eleanor Waldorf Rose, before outing himself as a gay man and moving to Paris, France. Harold is currently involved with his partner, Roman.

Despite the fact that Blair considered her father quite the family man, she is devastated at his outing and subsequent move – she clearly considers it a betrayal. Her picture perfect holidays – like Thanksgiving – are forever changed, especially when she finds out that her father will not be spending all of the holidays with the family.

Blair’s bulimia is clearly tied to the relationship that she has with her parents. When she argues with her mother at Thanksgiving about her father, she quickly falls back into her bulimia as a way of coping.

We find out through the season that Harold is not the monster that Eleanor paints him to be (though, to be clear, leaving your family to flee to another country for anyone, gay or straight, is not the mark of a good father). This is most evident at Christmas, when Harold brings his partner, Roman, home to meet Blair. Harold announces that he has bought a home in Lyon, France, where he will live – this distresses Blair to have her father so far away. Later, she finds out that Harold has a room waiting for her in France – this becomes important later when things fall apart for Blair.

I give Blair’s father mixed reviews as parenting goes on Gossip Girl. He clearly loves his daughter but he has, in essence, abandoned her for a new life.

Blair’s desperation to be both liked and loved is, I think, a direct consequence of an unstable home life. Her mother has grown bitter over Harold’s betrayal and chooses to cope by creating a “perfect” home life. Blair has adopted her mother’s habit of dealing with trauma by sweeping it under the rug publicly and dealing with it painfully in private. If Harold had done things differently, perhaps Blair would have a healthier self esteem.

What do you think? Is Blair’s father doing the best he can – or just being selfish?

(Image: Newscom)