South Carolina's first lady Jenny Sanford says her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, is in the midst of a midlife crisis and it is up to him to save their marriage.
While Jenny Sanford has asked the media for privacy and retreated to the family's beach house on Sullivan's Island with the couple's four sons, the first lady appears in this month's Vogue magazine, on newsstands this week.
An accompanying photo shows Jenny Sanford in a short beach coverup, a straw hat in hand, as she leans in the beach house's doorway.
"All I can do is forgive," she told the magazine, circulated nationwide. "Reconciliation is something else, and that is going to be a harder road. I have put my heart and soul into being a good mother and wife. Now I think it's up to my husband to do the soul-searching to see if he wants to stay married. The ball is in his court."
Gov. Sanford's spokesman Ben Fox declined to comment on the article.
In June, Sanford admitted to a year-long affair with an Argentine divorcee, Maria Belen Chapur, whom he secretly met in Buenos Aires, unbeknownst to his staff and lawmakers.
Jenny Sanford likened her husband's interest in Chapur — who Mark Sanford called his "soul mate" in an interview — to an addiction.
"Over the course of both pastoral and marriage counseling, it became clear to me that he was just obsessed with going to see this woman. I have learned that these affairs are almost like an addiction to alcohol or pornography. They just can't break away from them," Jenny Sanford said.
In the weeks since the governor admitted the affair, allegations have surfaced about Sanford's use of state aircraft for private and political reasons, which is barred by state law. Sanford also has flown on expensive business class tickets on overseas flights. State law requires elected officials to use the most economical mode of transportation on state business.
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