COLUMBIA, S.C.—South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford says she may be able to forgive her husband’s much-publicized affair with an Argentine woman, but true reconciliation will take more time.

In a statement e-mailed to reporters Thursday, Jenny Sanford called her husband’s behavior inexcusable but said she may be able to give him another chance. It was her first public remark since Gov. Mark Sanford told The Associated Press that Maria Belen Chapur is his soul mate but he is trying to fall back in love with his wife.

“Forgiveness opens the door for Mark to begin to work privately, humbly and respectfully toward reconciliation with me,” she said. “However, to achieve true reconciliation will take time, involve repentance, and will not be easy.”

Mark Sanford’s spokesman, Joel Sawyer, said the governor will travel Friday to be with his family in Florida, where his in-laws live.

The embattled Republican brushed aside calls for his resignation as state law enforcement officials announced that an investigation found he had used no taxpayer money on trips to New York and Argentina where he saw Chapur.

The Sanfords have been separated for several weeks. In her statement Thursday, Jenny Sanford offered no opinion on her husband’s political future, saying it is up to South Carolina voters and elected officials to decide whether they can “give Mark another chance.”

“Mark showed a lack of judgment in his recent actions as governor,” she said. “However, his far more egregious offenses were committed against God, the institutions of marriage and family, our boys and me.”

Sawyer would not say where the Sanfords will stay in Florida or how long they will be together. He asked the media to respect their privacy.

Several cars with South Carolina license plates were seen Thursday coming in and out of the gated community in Hobe Sound, Fla., where Jenny Sanford’s family lives.

Passengers in a few vehicles covered their faces as they passed. A man and a woman who identified themselves as friends of Jenny Sanford stopped and gave the first lady’s statement to an AP reporter there, but would not comment further.