Petraeus: "I screwed up royally"

In a letter to a close friend, David Petraeus takes responsibility for his mistake in having an affair with Paula Broadwell, and for the first time confirms his wife, Holly, is staying with him.

"I screwed up royally," Petraeus wrote in a personal letter to Brigadier General James Shelton, a friend and father figure to the disgraced former CIA director. "I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing, at the end of the day."

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Shelton said Petraus's mistress and biographer deserves more of the blame.

[Petraeus] "was the innocent one when it came to the relationship," Shelton said. "Paula was more savvy than Dave about the nature of the things that they got involved with."

"I never knew David as being a woman chaser--he never gave a damn about anybody other than Holly."

Shelton and Petraeus have been friends since the 1970s, when they met serving together in Turkey.

The whole letter from Petraeus to Shelton:

Dear Jim (if I may)

I can't thank you enough for you note, kind words and support. I can't tell you how much it all meant.

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I screwed up royally. I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing, at the end of the day.

Team Petraeus will survive though have obviously created enormous difficulty for us. Holly is however once again demonstrating how incredibly fortunate I was to marry her.

Beyond that thanks for sending me the photos and various items you did. It was good indeed to recall some of the good guys and the good days. Great stuff.

Again, many thanks and all the best.

ATW (all the way)