They bonded over a long run along the Potomac River: the general and his curvaceous biographer, conducting a Q&A while keeping a six-minute-mile pace.
For West Point graduate Paula Broadwell, the 2008 workout was her entree into the world of four-star Gen. David Petraeus — patriot, potential presidential candidate, married father of two.
Four years later, Petraeus’ stellar 37-year career is in tatters and Broadwell remains missing in action after their adulterous May-December affair exploded in a blitzkrieg of headlines.
The news broke just after Election Day — and on a night when Broadwell and her hubby were sharing a romantic dinner to celebrate her 40th birthday.
The disgraced Petraeus, 60, quickly resigned from his job as CIA director, while Broadwell bolted from the North Carolina home where she and spouse Scott were raising two sons. As the sex scandal mushroomed, its epicenter emerged far from the battlefields of Afghanistan, the halls of power in Washington, or even the suburban Virginia offices of the CIA.
The focal point of the military mess was a $1.5 million Florida mansion in foreclosure, the home of a socialite who swooned at the sight of military brass.
It was through Southern beauty Jill Kelley that the world learned about Petraeus’ romance — and that he wasn’t the only officer who isn’t a gentleman.
The vivacious Kelley, 37, was a fixture at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where she served as a volunteer social director of sorts. She hosted a party for Petraeus and his wife at her six-bedroom, 41/2-bath spread in a ritzy Tampa neighborhood, sharing a kiss with the general after presenting him with a civic award.
Their friendship apparently irked a jealous Broadwell, who targeted Kelley with several toxic emails. The nasty notes were “cat-fight stuff,” a source told Daily Beast columnist Michael Daly.
But Kelley, a doctor’s wife and mom of three, was sufficiently shaken to call an old friend — a local FBI agent — after receiving the anonymous messages from “Kelleypatrol.” The tip, followed by a bit of cyber-digging, unearthed the romance between the general and his jogging partner.
It also uncovered a plethora of suggestive emails between Kelley and Gen. John Allen, who succeeded Petraeus in Afghanistan. There were more than 20,000 blush-worthy pages that put Allen’s appointment as head of NATO forces in Europe on hold and his career in jeopardy.
The married Allen, 58, plans to spill the details of his salacious cyber-relationship as the probe of the extramarital antics continues.
The unlikely affair between Petraeus and brunette fitness buff Broadwell reportedly began in fall 2011, two months after his appointment to the CIA — but the lovers met years earlier.
It was 2006 when their paths crossed at Harvard University, where Broadwell was studying at the Kennedy School of Government for her master’s degree in public administration.
Two years later, the general agreed to cooperate with Broadwell on her doctoral di ssertation — which morphed into the book.
