White House hopeful Senator John Kerry was tonight firmly in command of the race to challenge George W Bush for the presidency, after a young intern denied ever having a relationship with him.
The accusations had threatened to destroy Mr Kerry's runaway bid for the Democratic nomination.
He had been linked to a 27-year-old student called Ms Alex Polier, a journalism graduate. But tonight she broke her silence following a weekend of speculation.
She said: "I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumours in the press are completely false."
She was speaking in Nairobi, where she is visiting the parents of her fiance, Mr Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli who was raised in Kenya.
She said: "Whoever is spreading these rumours and allegations does not know me."
She added: "I never interned or worked for John Kerry."
Asked why it took her so long to speak out, she said: "Because these stories were false, I assumed the media would ignore them.
"It seems that efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address them."
In a separate statement, Ms Polier's parents, Terry and Donna Polier of Malvern, Pennsylvania, dismissed the "completely false and unsubstantiated" allegations about their daughter.
"We love and support her 100 per cent and these unfounded rumours are hurtful to our entire family.
"We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation, and intend to vote for him for president of the United States."
In his only comment on the matter Mr Kerry told reporters on Friday: "I just deny it categorically. It's rumour. It's untrue."
Ms Polier graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1999. She received her master's in journalism from Columbia in 2003.
The allegations about Mr Kerry and an intern surfaced on the Drudge Report news-gossip website last week.
AP