New York’s brand new governor admitted that he had an affair during a rough period of his marriage. David Paterson took this preventive measure to come clean before the press a day after he was sworn in as New York’s firs black and legally blind governor.

Rumors about the years-old affair were already circulating. Paterson and his wife, Michelle, told the NY Daily News that both of them had affairs several years ago during a period when their relationship wasn’t working.
 
"This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point," Paterson told the Daily News. "But I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on."

Paterson acknowledged that he had an affair with another woman from 1999 until 2001, but after that he and his wife took the decision to make their relation work and sought counseling.

Among the few details the governor chose to revel was the fact that he used to stay with the other woman at a Days Inn on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He also said that his Albany staff also used to stay there during their visits in New York, but he underlined the fact that he didn’t use government or campaign funds to pay his romantic rendezvous’ as Elliot Spitzer, the state’s ex-governor, did.

The Patersons refused to give further details regarding that period of their marriage.

Paterson’s spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment on the interview with the Daily News, an interview that came soon after he was sworn in as New York’s 55th governor. 

Paterson, a Harlem native, had been Spitzer’s lieutenant governor for 14 months before taking his place. “Wall Street’s Sheriff”, as some called him, had no choice but to resign after his involvement in a VIP prostitution ring came to light. Spitzer made official his decision to retire from the state’s top office on Wednesday.