Friends: S.C. First Lady Jenny Sanford Focused on Family, Faith

July 6, 2009 — -- South Carolina's first lady, Jenny Sanford, turned to her friends for support after news broke of her husband's extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina.

According to family friends Lalla Lee and Chip Campsen, Jenny Sanford is concerned primarily with protecting her sons and repairing her marriage.

"Jenny's perfectly justified, by any standard, of just filing for divorce and saying, 'I've had it with you and I'm taking the boys and I'm taking assets and I'm out of here.' She's perfectly justified in doing that. But she also should not be criticized if she has a desire to forgive if there is repentance, to reconcile that family because of the importance of that particular family," Chip Campsen said.

The relationship between the Campsens and the Sanfords began 30 years ago when Chip Campsen and Mark Sanford became friends when the latter was in high school.

"I met Jenny when Mark married her in '89 I think it was and moved to Charleston," Chip Campsen said.

"We were the first couple to actually have them to our house over to dinner, according to Jenny," Lalla Lee Campsen said.

The Campsens have served as close confidants as Jenny Sanford tries to navigate her way through one of the year's biggest political scandals.

While her husband has faced criticism, Jenny Sanford has received accolades for the way she has handled the public scrutiny of her marriage and her husband's affair.

In a statement released Thursday she said she was open to forgiving her husband for his "inexcusable" actions.

"Trust has been broken and will need to be rebuilt. Mark will need to earn back that trust, first and foremost with his family, and also with the people of South Carolina," the statement said. "The real issue now is one of forgiveness. I am willing to forgive Mark for his actions."

Friends said Jenny Sanford has relied on her strong faith to help her cope during this difficult time.

"Her strength is in her faith and, as she said, the Lord. And daily, she has turned to him," Lalla Lee Campsen said. "She has relied upon a verse that she has shared with me in Romans that says, 'Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.' And that has been a reflection of Jenny throughout these past weeks and months — that she has kept her eyes focused on the principles and values to which she dearly holds — and she has stayed strong and firm, and because of that, she has not been shaken."