US: A US state governor has been forced to resign after having an adulterous homosexual affair with a former adviser who allegedly threatened to blackmail him.
Democrat Mr Jim McGreevey (47) announced that he was a "gay American", and tended his resignation.
Flanked by his wife, the New Jersey governor said his illicit affair with Mr Israeli Golan Cipel (35) made it impossible for him to remain in office.
Political sources claimed Mr Cipel threatened to launch a sexual harassment lawsuit against Mr McGreevey, who is a devout Catholic.
Aides to the governor told New York newspapers that Mr Cipel had asked for nearly $5 million for his silence.
Amid the brewing storm, father-of-two Mr McGreevey appeared at a hastily-arranged news conference in Trenton, New Jersey.
"At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is," Mr McGreevey said.
"And so, my truth is that I am a gay American."
He confessed to having an extra-marital affair, saying: "I engaged in an adult consensual affair with another man which violates my bonds of matrimony."
The Harvard-educated former altar boy appointed Mr Cipel, a poet and former Israeli navy officer, as his homeland security adviser in 2002, prompting much criticism. Mr Cipel later left the state administration to work in the private sector.
Mr Cipel spent five years in the Israeli navy. Between 1995 and 1999, he served as assistant to the press officer of the Israeli consulate office in New York.
A law enforcement official told the New York Times that Mr McGreevey's office had called the FBI to complain that Mr Cipel had requested $5 million to halt the lawsuit.
News of the affair and resignation prompted sniping from America's merciless chat show hosts.
Remembering former president Mr Bill Clinton's words after claims he had an affair with intern Ms Monica Lewinsky, Tonight Show host Jay Leno said of Mr McGreevey: "Finally, a Democrat who can honestly say, 'I did not have sex with that woman'."