Maria Belen Chapur, Mark Sanford | 06/29/2009 9:45 am
Mark Sanford's Mistress, Maria Belen Chapur, Says Little About Affair; Wife Called a Hero
Chapur says she has idea who leaked affair-related e-mail messages to the press; friends say Sanford’s wife, credited with much of his political success, is no victim.
Image: Wikipedia
Maria Belen Chapur admitted over the weekend that she had a steamy affair with South Carolina governor and formerly rising GOP star Mark Sanford, but she’s saying little else on the scandal.
The 41-year-old Argentine woman also said she has a "firm suspicion" of who broke into her Hotmail account, where e-mail messages were housed containing details about her affair, reports The New York Times. But she doesn’t think the hacker is an ex-boyfriend. Whoever the culprit is, he or she broke into her e-mail around November 24, and, the following month, sent the e-mail messages to her ex and The State newspaper in Columbia, SC.
"I won’t speak about my private life as it just belongs to me,” Chapur said in a statement. "It has already been made too public during these last days, bringing to me even more pain."
Meanwhile, wife Jenny Sanford — the woman who is credited for many of her husband’s successes — is being heralded a hero by those who know her. She’s no victim. She kicked Sanford out of the family home, and says her No. 1 priority is her family, not her husband’s political career. She recently said she knew her husband has been cheating on her since January when she found a love letter, and that he had the gall to ask her if it was OK for him to visit his mistress. The Washington Post says Mrs. Sanford, 46, "seems to have drawn a new path for the aggrieved spouse of a philandering politician, an episode that has become something of a ritual in American politics."
Cyndi Mosteller, a longtime friend and prominent Republican operative in South Carolina, told the Post:
Jenny is the hero in this story. She’s the hero to her children, and I think she’s the hero to this state. In the midst of this tragedy, she is standing strong to who she is and what she believes in … I think Jenny has not had these types of ambitions, but I think every woman in South Carolina would vote for Jenny Sanford for governor right now.
Jenny Sanford certainly isn’t the first wife of a prominent politician to have her family turned upside down because of a sex scandal. Hillary Clinton endured Bill’s Oval Office antics; Dina Matos McGreevey had to deal with her New Jersey governor husband Jim McGreevey’s public outing as a gay man; Silda Spitzer was mortified to find out her husband, then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, was spending time with prostitutes; and Elizabeth Edwards not only had to deal with her husband’s extramarital activities, but the possibility that he fathered a child with another woman, on top of it all.
What do you think Jenny Sanford should do? Should she forgive her husband or kick him to the curb for good?
Read more about: Affair, Argentina, Governor, Jenny Sanford, Maria Belen Chapur, Mark Sanford, News, Politics, Republican, Sex Scandal, South Carolina, U.S.
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80 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
did anybody see where he said in a press conference that the Argentine woman was his "soul mate" but that he was "trying to fall back in love with my wife".
what????? his wife is STAYING. I’d be like "fall in love with this a—hole" as I was walkin out the door. There is no way that I would want to or try to hang onto a man that loved someone else and not me. period.
What I found out; checking on different sites, is that he has been seeing Maria Belen Chapur , sexual or not, since 2001. He said, “Maria is his soul mate.”
How can he now say he wants to stay with his wife if he found his soul mate?
Why would his wife want to stay in a marriage that she isn’t the soul mate, or loved deeply?
The question I would pose to Jenny Sanford is, do you want to find ‘your’ soul mate? Someone who adores ‘you’?
You deserve to be loved. Don’t stay because you feel sorry for him, or worry about his future.
He hasn’t been your husband for years. Kick him to the curb and find your soul mate.
I just heard that, too, on the news. But…he says he is "trying to fall back in love with his wife." Can you imagine? Hopefully, she will tell him not to bother.
"The Washington Post says Mrs. Sanford, 46, "seems to have drawn a new path for the aggrieved spouse of a philandering politician, an episode that has become something of a ritual in American politics."
…with a backhoe! That’s the spirit!
He’s going to "…try to fall back in love with my wife again…" - that would do it for me - goodbye Gov. Sanford. By confessing to the world his lover is is "Soul Mate" he’s trying to glean sympathy - forget it!
Cheating goes way beyond politics but he was one of the people who so vocally wanted to "hang" President Clinton - not the first time people who were voraciously determined to impeach Clinton have been guilty of cheating themselves. Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone! If he doesn’t resign he should be impeached - not so much for his original sin but for broadcasting all the sordid details and making himself a buffoon.
Lena: There is a certain irony in my martini avatar. For several years, I did a "Cocktail of the Week" on my blog, and I played with it, did the photography….maybe a black "Nevermore" cocktail for Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday with a raven, or "Year of the Rat Fink" for Chinese New Year. I should start that up again. I could have done a cocktail for the Governor. I rarely drink. That is the irony. I would take a sip of these creations to make sure they weren’t swill, but if I have two drinks a year, I think that might be an exaggeration.
If you want to root around looking for them you can find them here:
http://washingtoncube.blogspot.com
I would do a cocktail of the week for wOw, but I can’t post photographs, and that’s half the fun of it.
It depends how ambitious Jenny is and if she believes her husband still has a chance of being the Republican nominee… If she thinks he doesn’t, then she could comfortably say good riddance to him.
This marriage is not about love but about political strategy. That will decide if they stay the course or call it quits.