COLUMBIA, S.C., August 07, 2009
Mark Sanford's Family Moves Out
Wife Of South Carolina Governor, Who Conducted Affair With Argentine Woman, Vows To Continue Working On Marriage
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Jenny Sanford, wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. (AP Photo/Alice Keeney)
First lady Jenny Sanford and several other women moved boxes and clothing from the governor's mansion in Columbia. In a statement, Jenny Sanford said she was heading to the family home on Sullivans Island, some 120 miles east, for the upcoming school year. (Watch video of the family moving out.)
"From there, we will work to continue the process of healing our family," she said. "While we will be leaving Columbia, we will return often, and I will remain engaged in activities in my role as First Lady, acknowledging that my responsibilities to my family come first."
Mark Sanford issued a statement saying his wife's statement "speaks for the family, on this decision that we felt best, both for our process of reconciliation, and for the boys in the upcoming school year."
"I stand by this family decision and accordingly ask the media to honor the zone of privacy that Jenny has asked for on behalf of the healing process and our four boys going forward," he said.
Jenny Sanford is a former Wall Street vice president who helped launch her husband's political career only to endure his tearful public confession in June. She had separated from her husband and sought refuge with her sons at the couple's coastal home two weeks before news of the affair broke.
The boys had attended Heathwood Hall, a private school in Columbia. A family friend who spoke with The Associated Press on the condition her name not be used said Jenny Sanford has discussed enrolling her sons in Porter Gaud, a similar private school in Charleston. The friend asked to not be named out of respect for the Sanfords.
The departure came two days after the Sanfords returned from a two-week family vacation in Europe.
Jenny Sanford has called her husband's behavior "inexcusable" but said she was willing to give him another chance, although she said reconciliation would not be easy.
Sanford, 49, disappeared for nearly a week in late June to see his Argentine lover, Maria Belen Chapur, leaving his staff, his wife and the rest of the state in the dark about his whereabouts. Initially, his office told reporters Sanford was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
Jenny Sanford told the AP said she learned about the affair in January when she came across a copy of a letter her husband wrote his mistress. In the ensuing months, her husband asked several times to visit the other woman, requests she denied, the first lady said.
"It's one thing to forgive adultery; it's another thing to condone it," she told AP during an exclusive interview soon after the governor revealed the affair.
Days later, after the governor told AP he was relying on religious faith to help salvage his marriage even though the love of his life was in Argentina, Jenny Sanford said it was up to the people of South Carolina whether they want to give their governor a second chance.
"His far more egregious offenses were committed against God, the institutions of marriage and family, our boys and me," she said at the time.
The Sanfords met in New York in the 1980s when Sanford also was working in finance, at Goldman Sachs. The couple married in 1989 and relocated to South Carolina, where Sanford worked in real estate before serving three terms in Congress.
Until revelations of the affair with the woman Sanford met on a trip to Uruguay in 2001, the governor had been considered a possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate.
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- by the_majesty August 7, 2009 1:13 PM EDT
Fact --- An affair is involved in 80% of all marriages.
So why is the media making a big deal out of this.
It's a none issue.
The reason the media makes such a big deal out of Sanford is that he was one of those arrogant, pious, hypocrites calling for Clinton's resignation citing the "sactity of marriage". It is not his behavior it is his hypocrisy that is being displayed.
And he deserves it too. - Reply to this comment
- I see Republicans have no moral values at all since they are making excuses for anything the Republican governor does and anything he does is great because he is a member of the Republican party.
Well maybe it is just because to Republicans the party comes before everything, even laws or God.
Hey I think I remember another political party with the same thinking back in the 1930's. - Reply to this comment
- Obvious, that the man was not having his needs met at home.
- Reply to this comment
- "He who lies for you will lie against you" = I'll lie "anytime and every time" when it's about "me", "me want both ways" and "me want me gain both ways".
- Reply to this comment
- It would be a good thing if some of the "specie(sic)" leaving comments here would be extinct. I have never in my life seen such ignorance, inability to write a proper sentence, total lack of grammatical, punctuation and correct spelling knowledge, and obvious inferior education. It is scary! You who are displaying your ignorance should at least be aware of it and not post on here for all the world to see.
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- Yes, there are affairs, but he was in a public office and a high profile position. And this woman should just walk out of that marriage. Imagine, going back picking up the pieces when he is on TV saying, the woman he had the affair was his "soul mate". Well, if he was my husband he could have his so called soul mate and be damned. This marriage will never be the same,he will be thinking of the mistress everytime he is with her. I say kick him to the curb, take her alimony or whatever she gets and don't look back.
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- Hey Mark...
...the coast is clear now... - Reply to this comment
- Just wondering? How many Dems have cheated on their wives? This isn't a Repub. or Dem. promblem. It is nationwide acceptance it is ok to cheat untill caught. Men and Women both do it. Not just a man thing or a Repub or Dem. thing. Called HUMAN BEHAVIOR. It's because most people find it too easy and their vows and commitments to each other mean nothing except to a few that follow them. There are some folks out here with simple moral principles, all the others that cheat. They are JUNK.
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- Blue bloods, with all the money in the world, private schools, numerous homes and a "Soap Opera" lifestyle. Perhaps they deserve each other.
- Reply to this comment
- The Two Shall Become One Flesh...
Marriage is for Life!
http://www.cadz.net/tony.html
http://www.marriagedivorce.com/mdreform2.htm - Reply to this comment
- Kick Mark to the curb, your kids will thank you..how do I know, it happened to me years ago. I have been married almost 48 years to a man who became a good father to my children. Mark Sanford is like many people who cheat on their spouses, they do it once, then again and again.there sorta like people who like to watch pronography, they can just watch it once. Also like child molesters, I don't think they can ever be reahabilited..throw the bum out...get on with your life. Life is way to short to be miserable and never know for sure if he's cheating again. Take him for every thing he has now and everything is going to have in the future..he deserves this both to his wife and to the people of South Carolina who voted for this dirty dog.
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- Affair may not be big issue, but telling lie is a big issue for a politician. He is a hypocrite, he talks about family value and Christian faith too much in public. What he does opposite to that. Why he did not resign yet?
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- Folks,
Darwin said per his Natural Selection theory that "..the strongest species survive.."
Whatever the White Specie in America is doing now is eliminating them fast.
No Species like the White Americans can survive with just one child.
Eventually, in about 30 years, China will have to revise it 1-child policy since it started 30 years ago. - Reply to this comment
- Folks,
This loveless culture without Moral and Ethic standards between the sexes in America is producing a very High Negative Birth Rate in the White Americans population.
White Americans are self-destructing and becoming extinct fast without a fight. - Reply to this comment
- Folks,
This loveless culture between the sexes in America is producing a very High Negative Birth Rate in the White Americans population. White Americans are self-destructing and becoming extinct fast without a fight. - Reply to this comment
- by MorganBarber44 August 7, 2009 4:42 PM EDT
If she had been doing her wifely duty in the first place, he would not have needed to go elsewhere for his full service fluid change.
How do you know she didn't try and he shunned her, just like a guy to blame the woman she has 4 boys a house to keep and she is suppose to drop her clothes at his beckon call you must be a southern baptist to me you are a chauvinist pig - Reply to this comment
- by ianlou August 7, 2009 1:46 PM EDT
Guess we have the Mark Sanford, John Edwards, Bill Clinton fan club going strong.
Don't forget Ted Haggard and Eliot Spitzer
also Ensign have you forgotten him already and God know how many on 'C' Street that hasn't come out yet it is a republican thing more often than not Vitter is another - Reply to this comment
- by the_majesty August 7, 2009 1:13 PM EDT
Fact --- An affair is involved in 80% of all marriages.
So why is the media making a big deal out of this.
It's a none issue.
Because this clown was one of the key idiots in Clinton's impeachment for a BJ, and as a congressman he derided Clinton for it in the hearings, AND voted for Clinton's impeachment.
The hypocrisy alone should be enough to cost Sanford his job. - Reply to this comment
- I'm a conservative, but I gotta be objective. I don't know why Sanford is sticking around. Elliot Spitzer quit after we discovered he was using an escort service. Jim McGreevey, Governor of NJ resigned when it was discovered he had a male lover. I heard David Brooks say, "Sanford's affair was...based on real love and not a sleezy love like the others..." I can't believe the justifications people come up?!!
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- This story is no surprize when America has one of the highest divorce rates in the world. I give credit to the wife for wanting to work things out but somethings are no longer fixable. The fact is Sanford did not take what should have been important to him seriously and he got caught. For everything their is a price to be paid and a lesson to learn Sanford is not the first to do this and he surly won't be the last. If Republicans thought this was their guy then they were very mistaken and probably glad it happenend now as opposed to later. Both parties have their share of dirty politicians it's only the ones who lie and get caught that usually suffer all the consequences that go along with wrong doing.
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