COLUMBIA --- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, already struggling to salvage his family and his political career after admission of a scandalous affair, added explosive details Tuesday, including more visits with the mistress he calls his "soul mate" and other women in his past.
The once-promising presidential prospect said he is committed to reconciling with his wife, but professed to The Associated Press his continued love for the Argentine woman at the center of the firestorm that gutted his political future. In emotional interviews with the AP over two days, he said he would die "knowing that I had met my soul mate."
Mr. Sanford also said that he "crossed lines" with a handful of other women during 20 years of marriage, but not as far as he did with his mistress.
"There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines I shouldn't have crossed as a married man, but never crossed the ultimate line," he said.
Mr. Sanford insisted his relationship with Maria Belen Chapur, whom he met in Uruguay eight years ago, was more than just sex.
"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair; this was a love story," Mr. Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."
Mr. Sanford maintains he is fit to govern and has no plans to resign. "I've been able to do my job and in fact excel at it," Mr. Sanford said, while acknowledging he is a spectator at his "own political funeral."
He delivered a personal check late Tuesday for nearly $3,000 to reimburse the state for a 2008 state-funded trip to Argentina where he visited Ms. Chapur, and he insists no public money was used for any other meetings with her.
During more than three hours of interviews over two days at his Statehouse office, Mr. Sanford said he is trying to fall back in love with his wife, Jenny, even as he grapples with his feelings for Ms. Chapur.
"I owe it too much to my boys and to the last 20 years with Jenny to not try this larger walk of faith," he said.
Mr. Sanford detailed more encounters with his mistress than he had disclosed during a rambling, emotional news conference last week.
Mr. Sanford, at times crying and unabashedly emotional, acknowledged in the AP interview that he had casual encounters with other women while he was married but before he met Ms. Chapur. They took place during trips outside the country to "blow off steam" with male friends.
"What I would say is that I've never had sex with another woman. Have I done stupid? I have. You know, you meet someone. You dance with them. You go to a place where you probably shouldn't have gone," Mr. Sanford said, declining to discuss details. But he said those encounters were nothing like his relationship with Ms. Chapur.
SANFORD'S RELATIONSHIP
A timeline of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's meetings with Maria Belen Chapur:
2001: Mr. Sanford and Ms. Chapur met in 2001 at an open-air dance spot in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Mr. Sanford says they talked late into the night and he counseled Ms. Chapur about her failing marriage. They struck up an e-mail correspondence.
2004: Mr. Sanford and Ms. Chapur had coffee at a bistro in midtown Manhattan during the Republican National Convention.
JUNE 2008: Mr. Sanford met Ms. Chapur in Buenos Aires during a state-funded trade mission to Brazil and Argentina. The itinerary originally included only Brazil, but Mr. Sanford asked for meetings in Argentina after a colleague scheduled a hunting trip to the country. He says that's when the relationship turned physical.
SEPTEMBER 2008: Mr. Sanford and Ms. Chapur spent two nights together in Manhattan. Mr. Sanford says he flew coach, paid for the hotel in cash and told his staff he was reachable via cell phone.
NOVEMBER 2008: Mr. Sanford and Ms. Chapur spent three nights together in the Hamptons, which Mr. Sanford says he paid for in cash.
JANUARY 2009: Mr. Sanford's wife, Jenny, found out about the affair when she discovered a letter her husband had written to Ms. Chapur.
LATE JANUARY/EARLY FEBRUARY 2009: Mr. Sanford, intending a breakup, went to New York with a spiritual adviser to see Ms. Chapur.
JUNE 2009: Mr. Sanford ditched his security detail to make a secret trip to be with Ms. Chapur and, he says, spent "five days of my life crying in Argentina."
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