City Councilman Steve Corker and his longtime significant other, Helen Sandifur, are officially married.

Corker, who sometimes referred to Sandifur as his wife over the past few years, said in an interview this week that they were legally married in Las Vegas on June 29.

Sandifur is the ex-wife of disgraced former chairman and CEO of now-defunct Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., C. Paul Sandifur Jr. The couple legally separated in 1994, Corker said.

Corker said he and Helen Sandifur participated in a Buddhist commitment ceremony in 2001, but decided not to civilly tie the knot until now because of lawsuits surrounding Metropolitan.

 "I just love her very much. It's been a wonderful 10 years that we've spent together and I'm just very proud to have her as my wife," Corker said.

Corker has two sons. Helen Sandifur, who is not changing her name, has one. Corker declined to say how many times he has been married, but a 1999 profile of Corker in The Spokesman-Review said he had been married and divorced four times.

Helen Sandifur this year is running to be a Republican precinct committee officer. Corker said his wife's party affiliation hasn't caused friction in their relationship. Corker, a Democrat, once chaired the Spokane County Democratic Party.

"We're both fiscally conservative and, I guess, you could say, socially progressive," Corker said.

In 2008, Helen Sandifur agreed to pay $325,000 to settle a lawsuit from Metropolitan investors who claimed that C. Paul Sandifur Jr. improperly tapped Metropolitan’s corporate treasury to pay his divorce settlement.