David Letterman: I’m Still Trying to Fix My Marriage After Cheating on My Wife

Letterman and Lasko at the Kennedy Center
 Honorsin December. (Getty Images)

Three years after his embarrassing sex scandal was exposed, David Letterman says he’s still trying to regain his wife Regina Lasko’s trust – and blames nobody but himself for the drama.
In a rare sit-down interview, Letterman opened up to Oprah Winfrey about his 2009 admission that he had sex with women who worked for him on “Late Show With David Letterman,” including his assistant Stephanie Birkitt, who regularly appeared on the late-night show.

"I have no one to blame but myself," the 65-year-old comedian said on Sunday’s “Oprah’s Next Chapter.” “I think if you’re going to have a flow chart of the responsibility for this circumstance, this sex scandal, my name is at the top. I’m not sure what it means, but I’m taking responsibly for it, trying to atone for it.”

Letterman talked about coming clean to Lasko, which became necessary when a producer for CBS’s “48 Hours” – who was dating Birkitt – threatened to write a screenplay about the host’s infidelities unless he paid him $2 million. Noting “that was not a good day,”
Letterman revealed that he “wasn’t certain at the time” whether Lasko, whom he married only six months before the scandal broke, would stay with him. When asked if Lasko made him sleep on the couch after he admitted his affairs, he told Winfrey, “I slept in a wide variety of places.”

While Letterman says Lasko – who is the mother of his 9-year-old son, Harry – has forgiven him and that their relationship “is never better,” he hasn’t forgiven himself. “No, I don’t have that luxury,” he said. “I can’t forgive that behavior.” And he adds that he’s been working “each and every day” to right his wrongs. “I’m still trying to fix it. It hasn’t gone away. It will never go away.”

But not living with the lies has made his marriage better. “My life is fun and full of joy now – I only pretended it before,” he said.