Mo. governor confirms affair, denies slap, photo, blackmail

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens acknowledged being “unfaithful” in his marriage but denies allegations that he photographed his former hairdresser naked, slapped or blackmailed her to stay quiet.

Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, former Rhodes scholar and founder of a veterans’ charity, on Thursday fought allegations that he threatened to publicize the image against the woman if she spoke about the 2015 sexual relationship.

Greitens’ attorney, Jim Bennett, wrote in an email Thursday that any allegation of violence is “completely false.”

A bipartisan group of state senators signed a letter asking state Attorney General Josh Hawley to investigate the blackmail allegations.

Greitens, 43, and his wife, Sheena, released a statement late Wednesday after St. Louis TV station KMOV reported the sexual relationship. The report overshadowed his annual address to the Legislature.

The affair was “a deeply personal mistake,” the couple said. “Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately.”

During the 2016 campaign, Greitens cast himself as an outsider going up against a career politician, the state’s Democratic attorney general.

The woman involved did not comment on the record to the TV station. But her ex-husband, who also was not named, provided the audio recording to KMOV in which the woman gave details about a sexual encounter she says she had with Greitens in March 2015 at his St. Louis home. The woman did not know her conversation was being recorded.