Jackson Jr.'s Wife Confronted Affair Head-On

Today is quite the day of cheating politicians and their I'll-sit-for-an-interview wives. While Catherine Paladino told the NY Post she "wasn't angry" about her husband's affair, Sandi Jackson, wife of Jesse Jackson Jr., took a more confrontational approach. After news broke last week of his dalliance with a blond nightclub hostess, Sandi told Michael Sneed of the Sun-Times that she decided to publicly confront the news at her own 47th birthday, telling friends, "I put my foot knee-deep in his ass and he has been having a very difficult time sleeping peacefully since then."

Says Sandi, "I wanted everyone to know I was not taking it lightly." And she hasn't been. The Chicago alderman, who wed Jesse in 1991, learned of the affair from her husband two years ago. "There were sleepless nights and I started losing hair and I told him I would only consider staying if we got into therapy." The pair did, and got through it. "I thought we had turned the corner. Then this sucker punch in the press—and having to live it all over again publicly." She adds, "You know, when the Clintons ran into marital trouble, I thought Hillary should leave Bill. But when the 'beast' lands at your door, it can be a very, very different experience." (More Jesse Jackson Jr. stories.)