Now comes the sorrow. After her affair with CIA director David Petraeus detonated in political and military circles like a nuclear bomb, Paula Broadwell has sent out word through friends that she is devastated by the fallout.
According to the Associated Press, Broadwell “deeply regrets” the carnage that her affair has caused to her family and everyone else’s, and she is trying to repair the damage and move forward.
Broadwell returned to her home in affluent neighborhood of Dilworth in Charlotte, NC, yesterday with her husband Scott and their young sons. She had been cloistered at her brother’s home in Washington, DC, since the scandal broke, trying to hide from a ravenous media hungry for any information or images of her.
On a video that surfaced of the couple walking from a car to her brother’s DC home, while media reports characterized them as walking “arm in arm” in a show of marital solidarity, it looks more like Broadwell is clutching her husband’s arm for dear life. He is not reciprocating the gesture.
In Charlotte, she was reportedly overwhelmed by the outpouring of support she received from her neighbors when they finally returned home.
Broadwell began her affair with Petraeus while spending a considerable amount of time “embedded” with him while working on her book, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.” According to several published reports, the FBI stumbled across the affair when they discovered that Broadwell had access to Petraeus’ email accounts, which was considered a possible security threat.
Broadwell is apparently still the subject of an FBI investigation because of classified documents found on her laptop and in her home—though investigators say many of the documents are old and may not be classified any more. Broadwell has told them she didn’t get the documents from Petraeus.
It was Broadwell’s jealousy that unearthed her affair, as the FBI learned of it when tracing anonymous emails Broadwell sent to Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, warning Kelley to stay away from Petraeus and Afghanistan war commander Gen. John Allen.
Allen was sucked into the scandal when the Pentagon began looking into the copious correspondence between Kelley and Allen, searching for possible evidence of an inappropriate relationship between the two married people. Allen’s nomination to lead the U.S. European Command has been put on hold until the investigation is complete—though officials say it appears only a handful of the emails between Kelley and Allen are of flirtatious or questionable nature.
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