Gingrich: Working 'too hard' led to affair

DES MOINES, Iowa, March 9 (UPI) -- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says "things happened in my life that were not appropriate" because he loved America so much he "worked far too hard."

In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, the Georgia Republican said he "felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness" for marital infidelity. Gingrich -- who has been inching toward a possible run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 -- spoke with CBN Monday in Des Moines, Iowa, before speaking at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition presidential candidates forum.

"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," said Gingrich, who has been married three times and has admitted having extramarital affairs. "And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them."

Gingrich said he "felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness. Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness."

Gingrich co-authored the "Contract with America" manifesto that helped deliver a Republican congressional landslide in 1994. He was the subject of allegations of ethics violations and caught heat for the confrontation with President Bill Clinton that led to the government shutdown of 1995 and 1996.