(Photo Credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, announced Tuesday that their marriage of more than 20 years is over.

She stood by him throughout his career, including a tense 2008 news conference where he resigned 48 hours after revelations that he had frequented a high-end prostitution service. The announcement lasted just minutes, but the iconic image of the stoic though ashen-faced wife standing next to another failed politician would help launch a television show, inspiring CBS' "The Good Wife."

"I have been given much: the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York and the chance to lead this state. I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me," Spitzer, 54, said as his wife stood beside him.

That image of the politician's wife standing by him through personal failing even began the first episode of the hit series in 2009. The two characters played by Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth then walk away from the horde of media and she slaps him.

His wife was absent from the campaign trail this year during Spitzer's attempted comeback race for New York City comptroller. Spitzer lost the election and the two have been reportedly living apart for months.