Gen. Petraeus resigns over affair with Paula Broadwell
General David Petraeus(L), former head of the allied forces in Afghanistan, takes the oath of office as the next director of the Central Intelligence Angency from US Vice President Joe Biden on September 6, 2011 during a ceremony at the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC.
Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Gen. David Petreaus, director of the CIA, was having an affair, was the co-author of his biography, Slate Magazine said.
She was the valedictorian of her high school class, homecoming queen, a fitness champion at West Point and holds a graduate degree from Harvard, The New York Times reported.
According to USA Today, the relationship between Broadwell and Petraeus was found when a number of emails between the two discussing their relationship were discovered during an unrelated FBI investigation into Broadwell.
According to The Associated Press, the FBI was monitoring Petraeus' email account to check whether Broadwell had access to it, administration officials said.
Both the Senate and House Intelligence Committees are required to know about any signficant developments in the intelligence arena, The Times explained. However, the FBI did not inform the panels until this week, and the Senate committee plans to pursue why, according to one official cited by the Times.
The FBI learned of the affair after another woman asked the security office for help, The Washington Post reported.
More from GlobalPost: Petraeus quits over affair with biographer
The woman approached the FBI saying she was receiving threatening email. The FBI then traced those emails to Broadwell.
According to the Post, this third woman was close to Petraeus and Broadwell considered her a threat.
On Friday, Petreaus, a four star general, resigned from his position as director of the CIA, stating that he used "extremely poor judgment" in carrying out the affair, NBC reported.
His resignation was accepted by the White House on Friday after Petraeus met with President Barack Obama on Thursday, Politico reported. The resignation created immediate turmoil for the Obama administration just days after the election.
The New York Times said Broadwell, who had never been shy about her interactions with Petraeus while speaking about her book, "All in: The education of General David Petraeus," said that she had unusual access to Petraeus, and that their relationship was founded during her runs with the general in Afghanistan.
Broadwell spent 15 years in the military, according to her website, and is the mother of two children.
Watch a clip of Broadwell on the Daily Show, where she discusses her book and relationship with Petraeus.
More from GlobalPost: Advice for Obama after his re-election
Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you. We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
Make a gift today, and you’ll help us unlock a matching gift of $67,000!