It turns out Mark Sanford left some things out of his big long weepy affair confession, including three New York encounters with his mistress. It turns out he felt the need to break up with her twice! Imagine that.

The South Carolina governor had previously copped to five encounters, all in South America, with Argentine TV reporter Maria Belen Chapur. Now he tells the Associated Press — in a "lengthy and emotional" interview! — that he met with the woman three other times:

  • Two nights in Manhattan in September 2008.
  • Three nights in the Hamptons in November 2008.
  • One night in New York in 2009 with a "trusted spiritual adviser," to end the affair, which his wife found out about in January of that year.

Wait, didn't Sanford say he went to Argentina earlier this month to end the affair? Yes, yes he did, even though the affair was supposed to be over after that trip to New York. So what was Argentina really about?

Something, perhaps, that would endanger his reconciliation efforts and marriage counseling with hero wife Jenny. Or maybe Sanford resumed seeing Chapur at some point in 2009 after his January confession to his wife, and had to break things off again, in person. This would explain why Jenny moved out only "several weeks ago" despite knowing of an affair since January.

Sanford's initial public mea culpa was forced by an imminent story in the local newspaper, so it's no wonder it was incomplete. One wonders what goods the press used to force the governor's candor this time around.

(Pic: Sanford interview with the AP in his Columbia, SC office today. By AP.)