Antonio Villaraigosa, the first Mexican-American mayor in Los Angeles, said in January that the reason he was no longer wearing his wedding ring was that he had lost weight exercising -- and was having it resized.
But now the mayor is acknowledging that he is actually involved in a romantic relationship with NBC Telemundo reporter and anchor Mirthala Salinas.
The mayor made the admission on Tuesday after learning the Los Angeles Daily News was about to publish a story detailing the affair. The paper reports the mayor's mother-in-law says that when wife Corina Villaraigosa asked her husband about the missing wedding ring — he told her that it was none of her business.
At 4 p.m. on June 8, Villaraigosa issued a terse statement announcing that he and his wife, Corina, were separating after 20 years of marriage. Two hours later, Telemundo television anchor Mirthala Salinas delivered the story to her Spanish-language viewers on the Friday evening news.
"The rumors were true," she declared of the split after an introduction that described the story as a "political scandal" that had left "many people with their mouth open."
What Salinas, 35, did not say in the newscast was that she was the other woman. She and Villaraigosa, 54, had been in a relationship even though she had previously been the political reporter assigned to cover local politics and the mayor.
The revelation also raised ethical questions about Salinas' decision to become involved with a politician she was covering as a journalist. Several media analysts condemned the relationship as a conflict for her and the mayor and suggested that Salinas' bosses should have taken immediate action to remove her from handling any Villaraigosa coverage.
"There really is no question that this is unacceptable," said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. "You can't sleep with your sources. This one sort of transcends the boundaries in any ethical newsroom."
Additional reporting by Los Angeles Times, and Fox News
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