MONTEREY PARK, Calif. — The moment long anticipated by many outside and inside Mayor Giuliani’s presidential campaign came yesterday as he was confronted on the hustings here with a flurry of questions about his complicated family life.

As he and Governor Schwarzenegger emerged from an anti-gang summit intended to showcase the former mayor’s law enforcement credentials, reporters demanded that Mr. Giuliani respond to comments his son, Andrew, made over the weekend about his distant relationship with his stepmother, Judith Nathan, and his father.

“My wife, Judith, is a very loving and caring and good mother … and stepmother,” Mr. Giuliani said. “She’s done everything she can. The responsibility is mine. And I believe these problems with blended families are, you know, are challenges. Sometimes they are, and the challenges are best worked on privately. In other words, the more privacy I can have for my family, the better we’re going to be able to deal with all of these difficulties.” Mr. Giuliani seemed to have chosen his words carefully. When reporters clamored for more, he repeated his earlier statement nearly verbatim.

In 2000, Mr. Giuliani had a less than amicable split from his second wife, Donna Hanover, who is Andrew’s mother. Ms. Hanover called a press conference to complain that she learned from news reports about her husband’s desire to separate. They were later divorced and, in 2003, Mr. Giuliani married his longtime companion, Ms. Nathan.

In recent interviews with ABC News and the New York Times, Andrew Giuliani, 21, said the divorce and the new marriage soured his relationship with his father. “For a while there, we weren’t talking, for a decent amount of time,” the younger Mr. Giuliani told the Times. The Duke University sophomore and aspiring professional golfer said he would not have time to join his father on the campaign trail, but hopes he is successful.

“I have problems with my father, but it doesn’t mean he won’t make a great president,” Andrew Giuliani told ABC.

As Mr. Giuliani fielded the uncomfortable questions yesterday, he was flanked by Mr. Schwarzenegger, whose historic election in the face of numerous allegations of sexual impropriety is testimony to how forgiving Californians can be about such personal matters. However, forgiveness should not be mistaken for a lack of interest. The tabloid fodder drew about 20 television cameras, including one from “Inside Edition.”

A political analyst at California State University, Barbara O’Connor, said both the timing of the family flap and the fact that Mr. Giuliani was forced to deal with it while in the Golden State work to his advantage. “It’s clearly good for him to have it come up out here and to have it come out early,” she said. “Bringing it up now gets it over with in people’s minds.”

Ms. O’Connor said Mr. Giuliani acted wisely by trying to defuse the situation with an admission of personal responsibility and a call to respect his family’s privacy. However, she said one phrase in the former mayor’s well-rehearsed response, “blended families,” may have fallen a bit wide of the mark. “‘Blended’ assumes they’re all working together and living harmoniously. It’s not the term I would have picked,” Ms. O’Connor said. “It doesn’t sound like his son feels like he’s blended very well.” One leader of social conservatives in California said the new publicity would hurt Mr. Giuliaini’s bid. “One divorce is a failure; a second divorce reveals a significant character problem,” Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for Children and families said. “Giuliani put his family through the blender, and they’re still hurting over it.”

Because of the flare-up about personal issues, the former mayor received no questions at the news conference yesterday about his political views. The only non-family query put to Mr. Giuliani sought his reaction to the use of an anti-gay slur by a conservative commentator, Ann Coulter, to describe a Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards.

“The comment was inappropriate, unnecessary, rude,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I think we should be able to conduct our political debates without personal attacks on each other, ever, but particularly when they’re unwarranted.”

Even before the questions about his son, the anti-gang event was something of an awkward fit for Mr. Giuliani, who is on a two-day fund-raising swing through the state. As photographers and video crews were led into the meeting room, he was telling the governor and several sheriffs that gangs were a minor concern in New York. “I would never list it as the no. 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 problem,” Mr. Giuliani said. “It was never the no. 1 challenge.”

Mr. Schwarzenegger, who has appeared recently with another Republican presidential hopeful, Senator McCain of Arizona, and a potential independent aspirant, Mayor Bloomberg, did not make any endorsement yesterday. “You will see me with different candidates,” the governor said.

Mr. Schwarzenegger said his state’s plan to move its primary to early February would ensure that California is not used solely as a fertile fund-raising ground. He said later dates may have led to the “wrong candidate” being selected in past primary contests. “We want to make sure that California is relevant,” he said. “We’re the most important state in the union.”