Governor admits affair, denies blackmail
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — When Eric Greitens sought Missouri’s highest office in 2016, his resumé seemed hard to top: former U.S. 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 squarejawed Republican governor fought allegations that he photographed his 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. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers asked the attorney general to investigate as well.
Greitens acknowledged being “unfaithful” in his marriage, but denied taking any naked photos and blackmailing the woman to stay quiet.
The governor and his wife released a statement late Wednesday after St. Louis TV station KMOV aired a report that he had a sexual relationship with the hairdresser in 2015.
The report included allegations from the woman’s ex-husband, who secretly recorded a conversation with his ex-wife discussing the affair.
The affair was “a deeply personal mistake,” the Greitens’ statement said. “Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately.”
Grietens, 43, has been seen as a rising star in Republican political circles. During the campaign, he cast himself as an outsider going up against a career politician, the state’s Democratic attorney general. He barely hid his higher ambitions and reserved the web address ericgreitensforpresident.com years ago.
Through his attorney, the governor also denied an allegation from the ex-husband that Greitens slapped the woman, saying any accusation of violence is “completely false.”
The woman involved did not comment on the record to the TV station, which did not name her. But her ex-husband, who also was not named, provided the audio recording to KMOV.
On the recording, 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 then-husband was recording their conversation.
The Associated Press learned her identity Thursday, but chose not to identify the woman.