“Late Show” host David Letterman will speak about his past relationships with female coworkers again on tonight’s show, which taped this afternoon in midtown Manhattan. According to an audience member, Letterman said he didn’t want to talk again about his past affairs, but since “everybody wants to talk about it,” he would. He apologized to his staff, who he said were being hounded by questions from the media.
“I’m terribly sorry that I put the staff in that position,” he said, according to a transcript provided by his production company. “Inadvertently, I just wasn’t thinking ahead. And, moreover, the staff here has been wonderfully supportive to me, not just through this furor, 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.”
Letterman also noted that he had hurt his wife, whom he did not mention during his original admission last week. He stunned his audience last Thursday when he revealed his dalliances with female employees after he’d been threatened with a $2 million extortion plot by CBS producer Robert “Joe” Halderman. Stephanie Birkitt, 34, was named as the woman at the center of the scandal. Reports have linked her to both Letterman and Halderman, who pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, and was released from jail Friday on $200,000 bail.