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Acknowledging up front that I'm just making blind comments here, I would be willing to bet money that Broadwell has what used to be called ‘borderline personality disorder’. People with that disorder tend to shine very bright lights on people, and have the ability to make the object of their attention seem superhuman - incredibly loved and admired. However, they really aren't capable of those emotions, and tend to split people into super hero vs. super villain. If she truly cared about Petraeus, and was thinking about her children and husband, she would have tried to find a way out of this mess that let them all lick their wounds and recover their lives. She instead appears to have gone the Glen Close route (i.e. Fatal Attraction).

Women like this have a supreme need to bask in the light of what they perceive as greatness, because it is that which gives their own existence substance. Like those with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, their actions are the result of a personal emptiness that they are psychologically compensating for. The spouses of women like this - unless superhuman - will always be at risk of being left behind, because at some point they fall off their pedestal and thus lose the ability to provide the kind of greatness by proxy that the borderline requires. It's like needing a bigger and bigger, or at least newer and newer fix. If you look at all the pictures of her that have been pasted into news stories, they have a general feel of flamboyance - of someone seeking legitimacy and attention. Women with this personality disorder are self-destructive, and even cut themselves.

I'm not in any way excusing Petraeus. He made bad choices, and lost his self-respect, his position, and hurt his family in the process. He followed the ‘Song of the Siren’ to where it usually leads - self destruction.

“Acknowledging up front that I'm just making blind comments here, I would be willing to bet money that Broadwell has what used to be called ‘borderline personality disorder’.”

I agree. I was married to one and was the sister of another.

Best reference, IMO: “Stop Walking on Eggshells”