Ghostwriter on Petraeus Biography ‘Never Anticipated’ Affair

The journalist who spent 16 months working with Paula Broadwell on a biography of former CIA Director David Petraeus said he “never anticipated the extramarital affair” between the two.

“When the news broke Friday that Petraeus was resigning in disgrace because of an adulterous affair, I was dumbfounded,” Vernon Loeb, the Metro Editor for The Washington Post, said in an article published on Monday. He had ghost-written the book, “All In: The Education of David Petraeus,” based on Broadwell’s reporting.

“ ‘Could it be Paula?’ ” my friends and colleagues asked immediately,” Loeb said. “Even then, I said I would give her the benefit of the doubt — until the doubt evaporated a few hours later.”

Loeb, who had been embedded with Petraeus in Iraq while the Post’s Pentagon correspondent in 2003, said he had begun working with Broadwell on the book in 2010. He said he had limited contact with Petraeus throughout the time he worked on the book.

“I never thought they were having an affair — and I still have no idea when the affair actually began,” Loeb said.