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Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired U.S. Army General Colin Powell, right, denies he had an affair with Romanian diplomat Corina Cretu, left. He says email messages made public by a hacker are those of ‘a friendship that electronically became very personal and then back to normal.’
Colin Powell denied Thursday that he cheated on his wife of 50 years with a blond Romanian diplomat he met while he was U.S. Secretary of State after his emails of “a very personal nature” were made public.
Powell, 76, was forced to clarify his relationship with Corina Cretu, 46, after a notorious hacker dubbed “Guccifer” posted a link to their emails on his Facebook page.
“A traitor to the mother land!” the hacker wrote on Powell’s Facebook wall, attaching a Google drive link to emails Powell received from Crutu from 2010 to 2011 through his personal AOL account.
In the emails Cretu called the Bronx. N.Y.-born Powell “the love of her life” and left a clear impression she was writing about the twilight of a romance, TheSmokingGun.com reported Thursday.
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Romanian dlplomat Corina Cretu reportedly called Colin Powell ‘the love of her life,’ according to TheSmokingGun.com.
In response to the website’s questions, the former four-star general issued a statement insisting he has not been unfaithful to his wife, Alma.
“This was a friendship that electronically became very personal and then back to normal,” Powell told the website.
“She sent photos on a regular basis. Lots of family photos with her nieces, who she adores, family reunions, formal business sessions, her wedding and some bathing suit photo … Never anything improper,” Powell said.
He said he met Cretu about 10 years ago while he was secretary of state under former President George W. Bush and she was the spokeswoman for the president of Romania. He said they’ve only seen each other “once or twice” over the past eight years.
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Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Retired four-star U.S. general Colin Powell, right, issued a statement insisting he has not been unfaithful to his wife, Alma, left.
Cretu, a member of the Social Democratic Party in Romania, was elected in 2007 to the European Parliament. She serves as vice chair of the Parliament’s Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
She also recently got married.
After learning of his AOL account had been hacked, Powell informed Cretu and advised her it was “best to delete all between us.”
He said that after leaving the State Department in January 2005, he stayed in touch with Cretu via email and “frequently gave her advice on the prospects of finding a position with the UN or other international organizations.”
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‘She sent photos on a regular basis. Lots of family photos with her nieces, who she adores, family reunions, formal business sessions, her wedding and some bathing suit photo … Never anything improper,’ Colin Powell said of Romanian diplomat Corina Cretu.
He said the emails of a “very personal nature” between him and Cretu “ended a few years ago.”
“There was no affair then and there is not one now,” said Powell, adding that he remained in touch with Cretu that they continued to be “friends.”
“I am pleased that she is having a successful career,” Powell said. “I am pleased she is recently and happily married.”
“Guccifer” — whose identity remains a mystery — apparently hacked Powell’s AOL account and uploaded 10 emails and photos that Cretu had sent him.
The same hacker claimed responsibility in February to raiding email accounts belonging to members of the Bush family, divulging personal correspondence and a self-portrait painting of the younger former president Bush in the shower.
