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When something like an affair hits a family, how does it affect the other half and children?

"The concept is to have your spouse as number one in your life and when that starts to crumble that is the fire for an affair," said Larue Bettis.

Licensed counselor Larue Bettis says she's counseled couples for more than 32 years.

Bettis says an affair can damage any relationship and now that's what South Carolina's first family is dealing with.

"What we're seeing is that families are so busy with so many worries and the foundation of their relationship is not strong enough to sustain the weight of life at this time," said Bettis.

Govenor Sanford announced Wednesday that he'd been unfaithful to his family and had been seeing another woman.

"The bottomline is this- I've been unfaithful to my wife.  I developed a relationship with a woman.  It started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina but here recenlty over this last year it developed into somthing much more," said Sanford.

The Governor and his wife Jenny have been married 20 years and have four children.

Bettis says when children are involved, it can make fractures in the relationship.

"When there's children involved, there's always the thought in teh back of the head that says,' What am I doing?", said Bettis.

And now time will tell if the couple can weather this obstacle faced before them.