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When Infidelity Tests Faith
October 13, 2017

Stories from the overlooked characters in the tales of misbehaving men: the spouses. Why they leave, why they stay, and how their faith plays into it. 

Jenny Sanford, 'Staying True' October 13, 2017

Jenny Sanford found out her husband was cheating on her from a letter inside his desk. "It was clear instantaneously," she tells us, "that he was having a relationship with a woman he claimed was his eternal love." That woman was Maria Chapur, an Argentine journalist, and the man was Mark Sanford, then governor of South Carolina. In June of 2009, when Gov. Sanford was visiting Chapur in Argentina and missing from the governor's mansion, he infamously claimed he was "hiking the Appalachian trail."

A year later, in 2010, we spoke to Jenny Sanford about why she decided to leave, and how she leaned on her Christian faith to help her through her very public betrayal.

Jenny Sanford, author of "Staying True"

Ted Haggard on Sexuality, Scandal, and Faith October 13, 2017
For a time, "Pastor Ted" Haggard had it all: He was president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the founder of his own megachurch, and one of the most influential pastors in the country. Then it all came tumbling down, when a man came forward alleging Ted had paid him for sex. We spoke to Haggard about his infidelity, his sexuality, and how he came to make peace with his wife, Gayle.

Ted Haggard, now pastor of Saint James Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Gayle Haggard: 'Why I Stayed' October 13, 2017
Gayle Haggard never craved the spotlight, though being married to a famous man threw her into it when scandal broke. But even after losing her community and her livelihood, she felt she had to follow the central message of the Bible: to love...and to forgive. From 2010.

Gayle Haggard, author of "Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in my Darkest Hour"