★★★★★ 0/5

Letterman: “My wife has been horribly hurt.”

In the first show since his admission, David Letterman acknowledges the hurt to his wife and thanks his staff for their support.

12
Leave a comment

David-LettermanDavid Letterman has thanked his staff  for their support in his latest show and noted that his wife has been “horribly hurt” by the news that he slept with women who worked for him on CBS’ Late Show in the years leading up to their marriage.

In his first show since his damaging admission, he opened with a comedic reference to his last few days in the media spotlight.

“Did your weekend just fly by?” he joked.

“I’ll be honest with you guys, right now I’d give anything to be hiking the Appalachian trial,” Letterman told the crowd.”The joke was a reference to the married South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who admitted in June that when his office said he’d taken a few days off to hike the Appalachian Trail -just another way of saying “gone to Argentina for seven days to hook up with my mistress.”

An audience member shouted “We love you Dave” on his first show back since breaking the news. But Letterman was more contrite.

“I’m terribly sorry that I put the staff in that position. Inadvertently – I just wasn’t thinking ahead,” he said of media furor they’ve faced since Thursday night.

“The staff here has been wonderfully supportive to me, not just through this furore, but through all the years that we’ve been on television and especially all the years here at CBS. So, again, my thanks to the staff for, once again, putting up with something stupid I’ve gotten myself involved in.

“Now the other thing is my wife, Regina [Lasko],” he continued.

“She has been horribly hurt by my behaviour. And when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it’s your responsibility, you try to fix it. And at that point, there’s only two things that can happen: either you’re going to make some progress and get it fixed, or you’re going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed. So let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me.”

The New York Post says that arrested producer Robert Halderman started growing incensed with David Letterman years ago when he began dating Stephanie Birkitt, but wasn’t allowed to attend Late Show staff parties with her.

Meanwhile, US media continue to soul-search over the issue, debating everything from Letterman’s maniuplation of the details, to getting an easy ride from other late-night comics, debating whether he will lose female viewers, CBS yanking YouTube videos, to rumours of a “fold out couch” in his office (shock, horror!).

The episode will air tonight on TEN.

Source: LATimes, Washington Post,

12 Responses

  1. @Doctor Ry, yes, it is easy to be judgemental in this case, as Letterman has broadcast his infidelities into the public arena, so of course people are going to discuss them and form opinions about him, based on his own admissions.

    @casey. In retrospect, I bet Letterman wishes he had kept this quiet and a matter between him and the cops. It has turned into a very humiliating circus, and he has put a number of people into an awful position.

  2. @Doctor Ry – good points and even when he makes jokes about others most are more than happy to go on his show, just look at the endless Trump jokes about his hair.

    @Casey – I doubt he will quite or step down any time soon, CBS have a lot invested in him and his name and going public was the right thing to do, just imagine if the papers picked up on the story, which they would have the minute it went to court.

  3. So he said sorry for the position he put the staff in.I assume that position was under him.
    Good to see Dave can still get his leg over.Not bad for a gap toothed old fella with an iffy ticker.

  4. @Allie: It’s easy to be judgemental if you don’t know the entire facts of the situation. And frankly, pretty much nobody does.

    He’s been with his wife for twenty years, but they’ve only just got married, which makes you wonder if there was a reason for the delay. And it’s funny how everybody is coming down on the guy who “cheated on his wife” rather than getting upset with the guy who was breaking the law and blackmailing him. Personal problems are just that – personal – and it was thanks to the blackmailer that Letterman has been forced to air them. We have no right to judge him because we don’t understand his situation.

    And before anybody brings out the hypocrite card, it’s worth bearing in mind that jokes about others’ affairs are clearlly just jokes – when Letterman interviews Clinton, for example, he’s always respectful of the man.

    I don’t condone cheating, but it takes a brave man to come out and admit to doing the wrong thing in front of the world. I doubt the average everyman who has cheated on his wife would do the same thing.

    And precisely which moral and sensible people has Letterman attacked exactly? Elliot Spitzer? Paris Hilton? Sarah Palin? I’d certainly be suggesting those three for morality awards…

  5. As no one wants to subject themselves to that sort of humiliation, it would’ve been a lot wiser if Dave had kept things quiet and asked the cops to keep the situation confidential – as in announcing that ‘a man has been arrested for attempting to blackmail DL, for undisclosed, confidential reasons’. By doing it this way, Dave (who’ll probably quit as host, within the next year or two) will probably lose viewers. When someone tried kidnapping his son a couple years ago, we didn’t see Dave go on his show and openly discuss it.

  7. Letterman is an unfunny arrogant pig. He constantly attacks people who are moral and sensible. His audience comprises the cream of gullible redneck yanks with few working brain cells.

  10. Before he had his child with Regina Lasko, I had heard rumours that suggested Letterman’s relationship with her was not exactly running smooth. It may have been an on-again off-again situation, in which case if his affair(s) happened during that “Ross and Rachel Break” then it’s not really cheating.

    The problem is, many are speculating the worst of him, and others like myself are speculating towards giving him the benefit of the doubt, while the truth is something nobody but those directly involved actually knows for sure.

    I think he’s partly apologising here for the media mess it’s caused after the fact, more than the affairs themselves, suggesting to me that Regina was fully aware of them and accepted it as being part of the way their relationship stood at the time. I think bringing out the dirty washing in this way is what’s really caused their troubles.

Leave a Reply