“Falling in love is not something that I chose to do. It’s something I have been struggling with for a long time. This is not something that happened on the beach casually, with no seriousness to the relationship. That’s not the image I wanted portrayed. We have been friends for a long time. And there has been mutual admiration and attraction for a while, but the more serious relationship started in the last few months. She didn’t come out of the blue. But we had respect for each other’s condition. She is a faithful Catholic woman.”