The mysterious Argentine woman at the center of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's cheating scandal has officially confessed to her relationship with him.

Maria Belen Chapur, 41, sent a statement to Buenos Aires news network C5n.

In it, she admits she and the married Mark Sanford, 48, have a relationship.

Maria Belen Chapur says she refuses to speak on her private life in greater detail and that the 200-word statement is all she plans on saying about it.

Yesterday, we reported how Mark's estranged wife, Jenny Sanford, was aware of Mark's affair with Maria and asked the Governor to dump his mistress.

This was before he went AWOL last week and embarked on his not-so-secret journey to South America to see her, which ultimately exposed the affair.

After telling his staff he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail, Sanford went off the grid and traveled to Argentina. The State newspaper in South Carolina accosted him at the Atlanta airport upon his return, after which he admitted his affair.

Follow the jump for the official statement of Maria Belen Chapur, in which she addresses the affair as well as Sanford's emails to her that were leaked ...