Giuliani used a tunnel under Mar-a-Lago to go back and forth from Trump's home, where he stayed while he was depressed and drinking heavily, book says

• After losing the 2008 GOP presidential nod, Giuliani moved to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, a book says.

• A tunnel under the Palm Beach, Florida, estate let Giuliani travel back and forth unseen, it adds.

• His ex-wife says he began drinking heavily and had "clinical depression" after leaving the race.

Rudy Giuliani at one time secretly stayed at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, where he used an underground tunnel to go back and forth from the resort while he was depressed and drinking a lot after falling short in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, a forthcoming book says.

In the book, "Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor," Andrew Kirtzman describes Giuliani's personal struggles after he left the GOP contest following a dismal showing in the Florida primary. The book features commentary from his third ex-wife, Judith Giuliani.

Giuliani "dreamed of becoming president from a young age, [but] blew his big moment when it arrived," Kirtzman wrote, according to an early copy of the book obtained by The Guardian.

Judith Giuliani told Kirtzman that her then-husband fell into "a clinical depression," which she said she knew about because of her background as a nurse.

In the book, she describes her ex-husband's excessive drinking as a way to "dull the pain," according to The Guardian report.

Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly denied he has a drinking issue.

During the difficult time, Trump allowed the Giulianis to stay in a bungalow across the street from Mar-a-Lago that was accessed via an underground tunnel beneath South Ocean Boulevard so they could avoid the media glare.

"We moved into Mar-a-Lago and Donald kept our secret," Judith Giuliani says in Kirtzman's book.

The former president's South Florida estate — already a well-known locale — has garnered sustained attention after the FBI this month searched the property and agents confiscated over 300 classified documents.

The release of the search warrant showed agents were looking for documents as they investigated whether Trump had violated the Espionage Act, which bars the unauthorized removal of defense-related information that could aid a foreign government. The FBI is also investigating whether Trump committed obstruction of justice.

While the former president has said the documents taken by agents were declassified, over a dozen former Trump White House officials have disputed that assertion.

Kirtzman's book, which is set to be published next month, chronicles the close bond and "compelling kinship" between the former mayor and former president.

In the book, Judith Giuliani tells Kirtzman that Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, "kept a protective eye" on their friends.

"What's clear is the two men's friendship survived when a hundred other Trump relationships died away like so many marriages of convenience," Kirtzman writes in the book. "Giuliani would never turn his back on Trump, much to his detriment."

Rudy Giuliani went on to become one of Trump's most trusted allies during the longtime New York businessman's White House administration, at one point serving as the then-president's personal lawyer and acting as a top campaign surrogate before and after the 2020 presidential election.

In the aftermath of the 2020 race, Giuliani worked feverishly to sway Republican lawmakers in a series of key swing states — including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — in a bid to overturn now-President Joe Biden's 2020 win.

After the news broke of the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, Giuliani told the New York Post that Trump would "raid every one of Biden's houses" if the ex-president launched a 2024 presidential campaign and again became president.

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