Jenny Stanford lived through her own scandal in 2009. Jenny Sanford: I won't vote for Newt

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s ex-wife Jenny Sanford said Thursday that Marianne Gingrich’s claim her then-husband Newt asked for an open marriage calls “into question his character” and will have an impact on Saturday’s primary.

Sanford, whose husband cheated on her, said that after hearing Marianne’s bombshell, she won’t vote for the ex-House speaker on Saturday and added that his infidelity will count politically in South Carolina even though voters were already aware of his marital issues.


“I think it will have an impact for some people,” Sanford said on “Hardball.” “I don’t know how much of an impact because people for the most part already knew that Gingrich, you know, was on his third wife. But I think that actually seeing one of his wives speak about him in an unflattering manner has got have an impact in some respect.”

She lived through her own scandal in 2009, when Gov. Sanford told the press he had been hiking the Appalachian Trail but had actually been in Argentina with his mistress.

Jenny Sanford said Gingrich would not be getting her vote.

“It does call into question his character certainly on the personal side, and as a voter, I encourage people to look at both sides. The personal side and if you’re going to overcome somebody’s moral failings or infidelities, you also have to look at where they stand ideologically and how much does their rhetoric match their reality. In my mind, Gingrich falls short on both fronts, so he wouldn’t get my vote,” she said.

In an interview with ABC’s “Nightline” set to air Thursday evening, Marianne Gingrich said Newt asked her for an open marriage.

“I said to him, ‘Newt, we’ve been married a long time,’ and he said, ‘Yes, but you want me all to yourself. Callista doesn’t care what I do,’” Gingrich said.

“He was asking to have an open marriage, and I refused,” she added.