Ms Chapur has been widely reported to have been Sanford's (left) mistress. -- PHOTO: AP
BUENOS AIRES (Argentina) - A 41-YEAR-OLD Argentine woman acknowledged having a relationship with South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, saying on Sunday that widely published e-mail correspondence between the two was obtained from her account without permission.
Defiant US gov won't quit
SULLIVANS ISLAND (South Carolina) ? QUIT. Retreat from public life.
South Carolina Gov Mark Sanford admitted on Sunday that his first thought as the scandal broke about his extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman was to leave office with 18 months to go in his last term.
In a brief statement sent to news network C5n of Buenos Aires, Maria Belen Chapur said she will not talk about her private life, which has already been the focus of intense media scrutiny in the United States and Argentina.
'I have decided to send this statement to clear up certain incorrect things that are being reported, and put an end to a matter that, as you imagine, is very painful to me, my two children, my entire family and close friends.'
Ms Chapur said someone accessed her Hotmail account without permission late last year and leaked e-mail correspondence that described a relationship with Sanford to the South Carolina newspaper The State.
But she denied the hacker is a friend of hers - as has been widely reported here - saying he is as much a victim of the media frenzy as she.
Ms Chapur has been widely reported to have been Sanford's mistress after the governor admitted to the relationship following a secret trip to Argentina earlier this month.
But he did not identify Ms Chapur. Reporters staked out Ms Chapur's building in an upper-class neighborhood in the Argentine capital for days trying to locate her, and pressing for information from neighbors and the owner of a bar that Ms Chapur and Mr Sanford reportedly visited.
People who know Ms Chapur describe her as an elegant, well-mannered, soft-spoken woman who speaks several languages. She is a graduate in political science from the Catholic University of Buenos Aires and a divorced mother of two sons. -- AP
