Congressman Mark Sanford Breaks Engagement to Argentine Fiancée

Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina announced Friday that he and his Argentine fiancée are breaking off their engagement, saying their split was due to legal battles with his ex-wife.

Sanford made headlines in 2009 when, as South Carolina’s governor, he revealed that he and the Argentine Maria Belen Chapur had been having an affair. The admission came after he vanished for several days in June to visit Chapur in Argentina, with one of his aides explaining he was hiking the “Appalachian Trail.”

The fib became a running joke and gave a salacious new meaning to the phrase “hiking the Appalachian Trail.”

Sanford announced his break from Chapur in a long Facebook post Friday, saying their relationship was strained by tensions with his ex-wife Jenny Sanford. The GOP Representative is in a custody battle with his ex-wife for their children. “No relationship can stand forever this tension of being forced to pick between the one you love and your own son or daughter,” he said.

He went on: “Maybe there will be another chapter when waters calm with Jenny, but at this point the environment is not conducive to building anything given no one would want to be caught in the middle of what’s now happening.”