A former aide to James E. McGreevey said today that he had three-way sexual trysts with the former governor and his wife before he took office, challenging Dina Matos McGreevey's assertion that she was naive about her husband's sexual exploits.

The aide, Theodore Pedersen, said he and the couple even had a nickname for the weekly romps, from 1999 to 2001, that typically began with dinner at T.G.I. Fri day's and ended with a threesome at McGreevey's condo in Woodbridge.

They called them "Friday Night Specials," according to Pedersen.Pedersen described the encounters during an interview with The Star-Ledger. He said he wanted to refute the innocent image that Matos McGreevey has projected - both during the couple's ongoing divorce battle and in interviews she gave after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned last week in a sex scandal. He said he was also incensed by her portrayal of herself as an unsuspecting wife in her book: "Silent Partner: A Memoir of My Marriage."





"I wanted to get this out now because it was so offensive to me that she goes on television playing the victim," Pedersen said. "She's trying to make this a payday for herself. She should have told the truth about the three of us." Peder sen did not say if he was gay or bi sexual and only described having contact with Matos McGreevey during the trysts. He also said he never knew for sure if McGreevey was gay.

"I had heard the rumors in circles outside of work," he said. "In hindsight, there might have been light interest (in me), but it didn't seem like he was gay. It did en hance their sexual relationship hav ing me be a part of it."

Neither of the McGreeveys re turned calls for comment. Their lawyers declined to comment on Pedersen's claims. Pedersen, 29, served as a driver and traveling aide for McGreevey during his gu bernatorial campaign and after he won office in 2001. McGreevey attended Pedersen's graduation from Rutgers University in 2003 and Pe dersen accompanied the governor and others on a trip to China last year.

His assertions mark the latest broadside in a particularly public and searing divorce case that has brought back to life the seamy personal issues that erupted when McGreevey resigned almost four years ago.

Matos McGreevey alleges the onetime Woodbridge mayor duped her into marriage in 2000 to further his political career, and that she had no clue about his sexual preference until just before he resigned in August 2004, when he announced he was gay and had an affair with an aide.

She has demanded full custody of their only child, Jacqueline, plus alimony and more than $600,000 in damages. McGreevey has denied any fraud and, in court filings, countered that he fulfilled his du ties as husband because he gave his wife a child and companionship. He has demanded equal time with their daughter.

A trial before state Superior Court Judge Karen Cassidy in Union County is scheduled to start in May. Pedersen could be among the first witnesses to testify.

A Woodbridge resident, he be came embroiled in the case when Matos McGreevey asked the court for financial records and correspon dence between McGreevey, his partner Mark O'Donnell, and other friends, including Pedersen. He gave a sealed deposition late last year.

Pedersen said he became friendly with the couple in 1999, when McGreevey was preparing his second run for governor. Pedersen, then 21, said he often spent 12 hours a day accompanying McGreevey and became friendly with his girlfriend, Dina Matos, as well.

"The more we spend time with each other, the more we begin to trust each other with non-professional things," he said. "That rela tionship starts to progress, to transform into subtle hints, flirts."

He described in detail the first Friday night encounter, which he said occurred sometime in 1999 and recurred "numerous times" over the ensuing months.

Then, Pedersen said, "Friday night specials developed into Saturday mornings."

He said his sexual liaisons with the couple blossomed fully during a trip to Atlantic City, but that they stopped after McGreevey was elected governor in November 2001.

McGreevey proposed to his wife during a 2000 trip to Montreal. In her book, "Silent Partner," Matos McGreevey wrote that she would not let Pedersen accompany them on the trip.

"She started talking about us three" in her book, Pedersen said. "She should have continued it. She should have told the truth about the three of us. I am Dina's Silent Partner."

Pedersen's revelations stand in stark contrast to the picture that has been painted in recent years by both McGreeveys. In her memoir, Matos McGreevey says little about the sex life she had with her husband, except to say that it never gave her any reason to doubt he was straight.

"The sex was good," Matos McGreevey wrote.

In his own memoir, McGreevey wrote of a moment in 2002, two years after they were married, when Matos McGreevey directly asked him if he was gay.

The former governor wrote that he did not answer the question.

"I didn't have the nerve to tell my wife the truth,' McGreevey wrote in "The Confession." "But instead I said nothing."

--Staff writers Josh Margolin, Claire Heininger and Allison Steele contributed to this report.