Mark Sanford apparently decided the best way to battle charges of trespassing on ex-wife Jenny Sanford's property was to purchase a full-page newspaper ad.

“It’s been a rough week," the former South Carolina governor writes in the ad in Charleston's Post & Courier, which aims to clear the air as he heads into a competitive May 7 House special election race.

Sanford, who famously disappeared in 2009 to "hike the Appalachian trail" when he was vacationing with his mistress, published the ad over the weekend to respond to Jenny Sanford's complaints that he trespassed on her property during the Super Bowl.

Reiterating statements he released last week, Sanford said he had been unable to reach his ex-wife, who was apparently out of town at the time, to ask permission to come into the house to watch the Super Bowl with their 14-year-old son.

He suggested that the release of the trespassing complaints, which were sealed in court documents, had been politically motivated, noting "the unusual timing of supposedly sealed documents coming to light two weeks before an election." Then he detailed his and his wife's desire to protect their family.

Sanford even gave out his cellphone number.

The ad follows a week filled with media coverage of the trespassing complaints and political back-and-forth over the accusations in South Carolina. In a telling decision, the National Republican Congressional Committee announced shortly after the charges came to light that it would no longer invest in his race against Democratic candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

Sanford's campaign has struggled to stay afloat.