Friends of Jill Kelley, the Tampa housewife who exposed David Petraeus’ affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, have suggested her husband tipped off the FBI about the “threatening” emails his wife was receiving from the woman.
The emails telling Jill Kelley to “back off” sparked the investigation that uncovered David Petraeus’ affair with Paula Broadwell and led to the CIA boss’ dramatic resignation on Friday.
The friends’ claims come as Jill Kelley, who became friend with Petraeus after working alongside him as a liaison officer at MacDill Air Force Base, was seen strutting outside her Florida mansion.
Jill Kelley was dressed in an eye-catching canary yellow suit as she swooped past reporters swarming the $1.3 million home she shares with her husband and their three children.
She climbed into her Mercedes which carries a license plate reading “Honorary Consul” – a nod to her unpaid work with the forces, and a sign she’s not shy about making her high-profile contacts known.
“Jill’s husband Scott is very protective of her, and I’m sure he was the one who said go to the FBI,” said a close friend about the scandal.
“They are a very close couple who are devoted to each other and their children. If his family was being threatened he would not hesitate to go to the police.
“Jill is a very strong woman, but I guess she must have known who these emails were coming from. She would have seen this Paula and seen how close she was to the General. She is very worldly wise and would have guessed.”
Jill Kelley has insisted there was no reason for jealousy as she is nothing more than friends with David Petraeus, whom she met when he was serving at the Tampa base between 2008 and 2010.
She worked as an unpaid, unofficial social liaison for U.S. Central Command, which David Petraeus led, and was reportedly a fixture at parties, along with her husband Scott, a prominent cancer surgeon.
