Missouri governor admits to affair

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — When Eric Greitens sought Missouri’s highest office, his resume seemed hard to top: former Navy SEAL, former Rhodes scholar and founder of a veterans’ charity. Most important, he said during the campaign, was his role as “a proud husband and father.”

On Thursday, the square-jawed 43-year-old was fighting allegations that he photographed a hairdresser naked while having an affair with her and threatened to publicize the image if she spoke about their relationship. The top prosecutor in St. Louis quickly launched an investigation, and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers asked the attorney general to investigate as well.

Greitens acknowledged being “unfaithful” in his marriage before he was elected governor but denied taking any naked photos and threatening the woman to stay quiet.

The governor and his wife released a statement late Wednesday after St. Louis television station KMOV reported that he had a sexual relationship with his former hairdresser in 2015. The bombshell report overshadowed his annual address to the legislature and included blackmail allegations from the woman’s ex-husband, who secretly recorded a conversation with his exwife discussing the affair.