Israel's first lady lashed out at a consultant Benjamin Netanyahu had an affair with, calling her "depraved" during a TV interview, local media reported today.
Sarah Netanyahu became so upset Wednesday at the interviewer's questions about the prime minister's infidelities that she angrily cut short the taping and demanded parts of it not be aired.Midway through the interview, Sarah Netanyahu was asked whether she uses the prime minister's cheating as leverage to influence his decisions.
"After such an interview and such questions I feel like packing up and leaving the country," Sarah Netanyahu said, according to front-page reports today in the Yediot Ahronot and Maariv dailies.
Mordechai Kirschenbaum, director general of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, told the Jerusalem Post that the parts of the interview Sarah Netanyahu objected to would not be aired.
"There is an ethical code we adhere to," he said.
Yediot Ahronot published details about the interview Friday, including Netanyahu's affair with image consultant Ruth Bar in 1993. At the time, Netanyahu was running for leadership of the Likud Party, then in the opposition.
"She is a depraved woman," Sarah Netanyahu said of Bar, according to Yediot. "She came on to my husband. You show me one married man who would not go along."
The prime minister's spokesman, Shai Bazak, issued an apology Thursday in Netanyahu's name.
Sarah Netanyahu has been hounded by unflattering publicity since her husband was elected prime minister last year.