Mark and Jenny Sanford divorced in 2009. Ex-wife claims Sanford trespassed

Jenny Sanford, the ex-wife of South Carolina congressional candidate and former Gov. Mark Sanford, has filed a lawsuit alleging that her husband trespassed at her home earlier this year, The Associated Press reported Tuesday evening.

According to the AP, Jenny Sanford’s attorney filed a lawsuit on Feb. 4 alleging that she confronted Mark Sanford at her home the previous day, where he had been using his cellphone as a light. Trespassing would violate the terms of their divorce settlement, which said that neither could be at the other’s home without explicit permission.


A court hearing is slated for May 9, according to the report — two days after Sanford competes in a closely watched special election.

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Sanford and his wife divorced in 2009, after the then-governor stunned the political world by announcing that he had been carrying on an affair with an Argentine woman. The Sanfords had four children.

In an email to POLITICO, Jenny Sanford wrote that she had not made the documents public.

“I confirmed that documents the AP sent me tonight were valid, but it was my understanding that these documents, which deal with a number of private domestic matters, were to have remained sealed along with the divorce documents,” she wrote. “I did not choose to make this public, nor did I choose the timing of his trespassing.”

Sanford’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

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The news of the incident comes at an especially unfortunate time for Sanford, threatening to thrust his family troubles front and center just three weeks before the general election. While the former Republican governor enters the general election phase of the campaign for the conservative Lowcountry-area seat as the favorite, he’s facing a formidable general election opponent in Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a Clemson University administrator and the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert.

Sanford has spent much of his campaign on an apology tour, casting himself as a figure of repentance and redemption. The governor’s opponents in the race, however, have called him a compromised figure.

Jenny Sanford, until now, had stayed out of the campaign. In an interview with Roll Call last week, she said that she would not make an endorsement in the contest.

“I don’t have any thoughts on the race that I am currently interested in sharing with the public, and I have no plans to endorse,” Jenny Sanford said. “I remain completely focused on the four wonderful men in my life and happily so.”