Her identity is still unknown to the public, but the woman who had an affair with Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens a year before he was elected has spoken out for the first time to defend herself — in a fight she said she never wanted.
Known in court documents as "K.S." and sometimes referred to as "Witness 1," the woman said she's in the "middle of the most difficult, crazy fight that I didn't ask to be a part of," according to NBC News affiliate KSDK.
"I didn't want this. I wasn't out to get anyone. I really was just trying to live my life," she said.
While Greitens has admitted to the affair, he denies the woman's accusations of blackmail and sexual violence.
"Above all, I am sorry for the pain that this process and my actions have caused my family, my friends and the people of Missouri," Greitens said in a statement this month.
The affair was first made public by the woman's ex-husband, but it was Greitens' denial of certain parts of her story that pushed her to speak up.
"The second that he denied the things that were the most hurtful, that were the most difficult for me to now have to relive, I just realized now I have this decision," she said. "The only ethical thing I felt I could do is to tell the truth."
On May 15, prosecutors dropped a felony invasion-of-privacy charge against Greitens, which had alleged that he had taken a revealing photo of the unidentified woman. The woman has also made claims that Greitens coerced her into a sexual act while she was crying on the floor of his home.
A special prosecutor has since been appointed to determine if the case should be re-filed against the governor, but the governor still declared victory after the felony charge was dropped.
Greitens, however, remains charged with a second felony in St. Louis for allegedly disclosing a donor list from a St. Louis-based veterans' charity he founded for use in his political campaign. No trial date has been set for that case.
The first-term Republican has so far ignored calls to resign and Missouri's Republican legislative leaders have said they are still holding a monthlong special session to consider whether to impeach Greitens in an attempt to remove him from office.
Those same Republican leaders said they found the unidentified woman's testimony "overall credible."
"They were hard to talk about," the woman told KSDK. "Really, really, really, hard to talk about. Some of the things. But I absolutely stand by it.
"I have no ill intentions other than not being made to be a liar. I'm not lying. This is hard. It was hard at that time and it's hard to talk about now. I'm not lying."
