Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) was the inspiration for one sex-crazed political character on \u201cParks and Recreation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Schur, the creator of the America sitcom that ran from 2009 to 2015, said on Friday\u2019s episode of \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d<\/a> that the character Councilman Bill Dexhart was inspired by Sanford.<\/p>\n \u201c[Dexhart] was based entirely on Sanford, who at the time we thought was the funniest version of those guys because the lie was so outrageous and just so egregious,\u201d Schur said.<\/p>\n On \u201cParks and Rec,\u201d the Dexhart character is a city councilman who is constantly admitting to sex scandals with no guilt.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I can say is, I wasn\u2019t just having sex,\u201d the Dexhart character says in one \u201cParks and Recreation\u201d episode<\/a>. \u201cI was making love to a beautiful woman. And her boyfriend. And a third person whose name I never learned. Furthermore, it was wrong of me to say I was building houses for the underprivileged when I was actually having four-way sex in a cave in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n Schur added that the show casted actor Kevin Symons to play Dexhart because of Symons\u2019 resemblance to Sanford. <\/p>\n Sanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n Schur\u2019s revelation on the podcast comes as Sanford has entered the news for an alleged affair once again. Sanford\u2019s first newsworthy affair happened in 2009, when he disappeared from his wife, staff and the public for six days. While he told his staff he would be hiking the Appalachian Trail, he later admitted during a news conference that he had met up with a woman to carry out an affair<\/a>. He also admitted that during his 20 years of marriage, he had \u201ccrossed the lines\u201d many times. <\/p>\n But this week, a second alleged affair was brought to light when Ryan Lizza, a political reporter, wrote in a Substack<\/a> that his then-fianc\u00e9e and fellow political reporter Olivia Nuzzi had an affair with Sanford in 2020. Lizza\u2019s revelation comes as Nuzzi is gearing up to release her memoir, \u201cAmerican Canto,\u201d detailing her affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n On \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out,\u201d Schur and podcaster Jessica Smetana broke down the story surrounding Nuzzi, Lizza, Sanford and Kennedy<\/a> that The New York Times called<\/a> \u201ca media scandal drenched in sex, politics, secrets and self-dramatization.\u201d After Nuzzi\u2019s affair with RFK Jr. broke last year, Nuzzi left her job at New York Magazine as its White House correspondent, but today, she works as an editor at Vanity Fair.<\/p>\n