Jenny Sanford: Husband Had “Nagging Doubt” He Could Stay Faithful

Jenny Sanford, soon to be ex-wife of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford joined me on GMA this morning to discuss her new book, "Staying True" in which she chronicles the ordeal surrounding her husband’s affair and why she, unlike so many in her position, did NOT stand by her man.

The question on everyone’s mind is what took so long for her to put her foot down and file for divorce which she did after knowing of her husband’s infidelities for nearly a year? "I'm a staunch believer in marriage," she says. But some might argue that marriage was doomed from the start. When the time came to choose their marriage vows Mark Sanford suggested they not choose one that dealt with being faithful. "He said ‘I just have some nagging doubt about whether I can be faithful my entire life.’"

And when her husband's concerns were proven legitimate she still gave her husband more than his fair share of chances. "Like many women out there who are trapped for many reasons, I felt very trapped because of the job that my husband had. It would have brought serious scrutiny from the media."

"I couldn't kick him out of the house" she adds, "because it was the government's house. It wasn't our house. I did whatever I could behind the scenes and when it was summer, the kids were out of school, I moved to the beach."

And what about her sons? How has writing this book done anything but drag them through the ordeal all over again? Sanford doesn’t see it that way. "It's a book about how you connect and stay true to what matters most in life. Your faith, your family, your friends, your relationship, how you act in life and how you conduct yourself. How you instill character in your children…they've read junk about their dad for years. The good, the bad, the ugly. That's what life is. My hope is it teaches them what matters in the world"

And she admits that the affair has made those things more of a challenge. "My hope is in the long run, they'll be better men for it," she says "hopefully better men and fathers in time. But there's no question that it makes raising them to be great men and men of character more difficult."

See the entire interview here: