Rep. Mark Sanford’s (R-SC) former fiancée had no idea that he was going to announce their break-up in a Facebook post, and said the engagement ended because she “was not useful to him anymore.”
While he was governor of South Carolina, Sanford admitted to having an affair with Maria Belen Chapur. He then left his wife, Jenny Sanford, and and later got engaged to Chapur.
Back in office representing South Carolina in Congress, Sanford in Friday Facebook post announced the end of their engagement and provided a lengthy description of his legal woes and child custody battles with his ex-wife.
The Facebook post caught Chapur off guard, and she told the New York Times Saturday that she found out about it through the news.
She also explained the events leading up to her break-up with Sanford. She told the Times that Sanford has asked to postpone the engagement until his son was 18 and the custody battles wouldn’t matter as much anymore.
“I’ve already been five years waiting and two years since the engagement,” she said, and explained that she couldn’t stay with him and postpone the wedding.
Chapur said that Sanford’s explanation that the two ended their engagement due to his divorce and custody issues does not tell the whole story.
“I think that I was not useful to him anymore — he made the engagement thing four months before the elections,” she told the Times. “So this is not about his son, this is about his career and his ambitions.”
Chapur added that he “truly was the love of my life.”
