Publisher says release of SC first lady Jenny Sanford’s memoir not tied to timing of divorce

Timing of SC first lady memoir not tied to divorce

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A spokeswoman for the company publishing South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford’s memoir says the timing of the book has nothing to do with her divorce filing.

The book, which had been scheduled for release in May, will now be published Feb. 5 by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House Inc.

Random House spokeswoman Theresa Zoro says the timing has nothing to do with Jenny Sanford filing for divorce from Gov. Mark Sanford. The governor disappeared from the state for five days last year and returned to confess an affair with an Argentine woman.

Jenny Sanford filed for divorce in December and a final hearing on the petition is set for late next month.

Zoro says the book was simply done and the publisher wanted to get it out.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford’s memoir about dealing with her husband’s infidelity will be published next month.

The 240-page “Staying True” goes on sale Feb. 5, according to the Web site for Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House Inc.

The book was to have been published in May and neither Sanford nor the publisher immediately returned calls about the change in release date.

Jenny Sanford filed for divorce from Gov. Mark Sanford last month and a final hearing on the petition is scheduled for late February.

The governor, once a rising star in the Republican Party and a possible 2012 presidential contender, disappeared for five days last summer and returned to publicly confess an affair with an Argentine woman. His staff told reporters he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but he was actually in Argentina.

The publisher’s Web site says the memoir will reveal Jenny Sanford’s private ordeal over her husband’s public betrayal. The book, which has a portrait of the first lady sitting by the beach on its cover, will tell how she learned just a day ahead of the public that her husband had not ended his affair with the woman he later called his soul mate.

“She reveals the source of her determination to be honest and forthright instead of the victim in the tabloid passion play that gripped the nation in June 2009,” the synopsis says.

Two days after Mark Sanford’s confession, Jenny Sanford told the AP she learned about the affair in January 2009 and told her husband to break it off, even though he asked her permission to see his mistress.

“It’s one thing to forgive adultery; it’s another thing to condone it,” she said.

Jenny Sanford, a Georgetown-educated, former Wall Street vice president, did not stand next to her husband during his pained public confession.

She later moved out of the governor’s mansion in Columbia and is now living with the couple’s four sons at their beachfront home on Sullivans Island near Charleston.

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On the Web:

Random House: www.randomhouse.com