Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and his wife, Sheena Greitens, are divorcing, the couple announced on social media Saturday, nearly two years after Greitens resigned amid accusations that he took a compromising photo of a woman without her consent during a 2015 extramarital affair.
“After much reflection, counsel, and prayer, we’ve made an amicable decision to end our marriage, and move forward as co-parents who love our children,” the couple announced on her Twitter account and his Facebook page. They asked for privacy and said they wouldn’t comment further.
Greitens was a rising Republican star after his 2016 election — a charismatic former Navy SEAL officer and Rhodes Scholar with presidential ambitions.
But in February 2018, only a few months into his term, Greitens was indicted on an invasion-of-privacy charge in St. Louis for allegedly taking the compromising photo of the woman he was having an affair with.
Soon after he was charged, a Missouri House committee began investigating campaign finance issues, and Greitens faced a second felony charge in St. Louis, accused of providing his political fundraiser with the donor list from a veterans charity he founded.
The invasion of privacy charge was dropped, but the prosecutor vowed to continue to pursue a case. A few weeks later, in June 2018, Greitens resigned and the fundraising charge was dropped as well. The former lieutenant governor, Republican Mike Parson, became governor and is running for a full term this year.
Greitens has re-emerged after nearly two years out of the public eye, handing out masks to first responders in St. Louis and Kansas City during the coronavirus outbreak. It has fueled speculation that he will seek office again.
The filing deadline to seek the GOP nomination for governor this year has passed, but he could file as an independent until July 27.
Sheena Greitens is an assistant political science professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia and is co-director of the university’s Institute for Korean Studies. The couple married in 2011 and have two sons.
The Associated Press contributed to this article