"Mark Sanford calls off engagement to ‘soul mate’" Associated Press September 13, 2014
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican US Representative Mark Sanford said Friday he is calling off his engagement to Maria Belen Chapur because of the ongoing contention with his ex-wife, Jenny, four years after their divorce.
Sanford, then-governor of South Carolina, famously disappeared from the state for five days in 2009, telling aides he was out hiking the Appalachian Trail. He returned to the state and at a tearful news conference confessed he was in Argentina and had been having an affair with Chapur.
Jenny Sanford, who has four children with Sanford, soon sued for divorce, which was granted in 2010.
Later, Sanford and Chapur — whom he once called his ‘‘soul mate’’ — became engaged. But Sanford, in a rambling message posted on Facebook on Friday, said he and Chapur are ending their engagement.
‘‘No relationship can stand forever this tension,’’ wrote Sanford, who in a special election last year regained the South Carolina House seat he held for three terms in the 1990s. Chapur was at his side when he was sworn in.
He writes that he’ll be forever grateful to Chapur and that if possible ‘‘there will be another chapter when waters calm with Jenny.’’
His Facebook posting comes after attorneys for Jenny Sanford last week asked a family court judge to limit the lawmaker’s visitation with his youngest child. They also want Mark Sanford to undergo psychological tests and take anger management and parenting courses.
In his post, Sanford also wrote about Jenny Sanford that ‘‘I will never attempt to detract from her or all the positive things she has done in her life, but having to go frequently to ask a former spouse when you can have time with a son is a recipe for conflict.’’
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