Sanford Admits to More Liaisons With Mistress

Mark Sanford met his Argentine mistress more times than he’s originally let on, he told the AP today. Sanford, who’d originally copped to only four meetings with Maria Belen Chapur during an 8-year relationship, described five in the past year alone, including two romantic getaways in New York, and a farewell meeting there also attended by the South Carolina governor’s spiritual adviser.

That last meeting was intended to end the affair, but Sanford couldn’t resist one last trip—the escape this month that brought the affair into the public eye. Sanford says he never traveled on the state’s dime, save for the fateful government trip last year in which his relationship with Chapur became physical. “Now I’m scared,” he said, explaining his feelings at the time. “We gotta put the genie back in the bottle.” (More Mark Sanford stories.)