Earlier post: Mother of two teen sons, 43-year-old Maria Chapur speaks several languages, is highly educated and works for a major agriculture business firm in Buenos Aires, Bunge y Born.
Despite calls for his resignation CNN reports Sanford will be returning to work on Friday.
"After spending Thursday with his family in Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, Governor Mark Sanford has returned to Columbia and plans on holding a Cabinet meeting on Friday," his office told CNN by e-mail Thursday, a day after he admitted having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman.
After disappearing from the public eye for nearly a week, Sanford, 49, acknowledged Wednesday that he had not hiked the Appalachian Trail -- as his staff had said earlier -- but had been in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Sanford said Thursday that he would reimburse South Carolina for the Argentina leg of a state-funded trade mission last year because he saw the woman he had an affair with on that trip, someone he described as "a dear, dear friend."
CNN's sources in Buenos Aires and in South Carolina identified the woman, whose name was also widely reported in Argentine media, as Maria Belen Chapur.
According to TMZ, Sanforn and Chapur were quite public in their affair in Buenos Aires, Argentina, hitting bars and publicly showing displays of affection.
After saying she was completely unconcerned when her husband went missing last week, I have to wonder about that relationship to begin with, what type of arrangements they had privately and why Sanford and his wife didn't just divorce and then this wouldn't have even been a scandal.
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