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Photo by Pierre Obendrauf/Postmedia

“I was surprised because I never asked for or wished for Pierre Karl’s resignation,” Snyder said Sunday. “I always supported him, regardless of our personal life, and if I had not believed in him, I would not have followed him and given up my career to support him.”

She said during her time with Péladeau she saw how hard politics could be and suggested his resignation – two years after he was elected to the Quebec legislature – was not the first time he had considered quitting.

“It is really the art of compromise,” Snyder said of politics. “When we were together and there were questions at home for him to stay or leave politics, I always encouraged him to persevere in spite of it all.”

In a post to his Facebook page Monday evening, Péladeau said he would have preferred not to publicly comment on the breakup. “My first preoccupation, as a father, has always been to protect my children despite this difficult situation. … However, following certain recent statements by Ms. Snyder, I wish to clarify the following,” he wrote.

He went on to say that he had felt privileged to be elected to the National Assembly and chosen PQ leader and that he had planned “to defend the interests of Quebecers and make Quebec a country.” But Snyder’s actions regarding custody of their two children forced him to step down.

“To feign surprise or claim otherwise with the goal of changing the facts that triggered my resignation is misleading,” he wrote.

The public foray does nothing to clarify the fuzzy line between Péladeau’s roles as corporate chief and separatist statesman. In September, he made an unannounced appearance at the PQ’s policy convention in Montreal. With his new girlfriend, the actor Lucie Laurier, at his side, he was mobbed by star-struck PQ members as he made his way to the stage to greet his successor as leader, Jean-François Lisée.