Comedian David Letterman said last night his wife had been "horribly hurt" by revelations of his sexual affairs exposed in an alleged extortion plot against him and apologised to staff of his popular late-night talk show.
The host of the
Late Show with David Lettermansaid on his show last night he was planning to try and patch things up with Regina, whom he married in March after dating for more than 20 years.
The two have a five-year-old son. "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," Letterman told his studio audience, according to a statement from his company, Worldwide Pants.
"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."
He said he was "terribly sorry that I put the staff in that position. Inadvertently, I just wasn't thinking ahead ... my thanks to the staff for, once again, putting up with something stupid I've gotten myself involved in."
On Thursday, Letterman said on his show he had been victimised in an extortion plot by a man who threatened to write a screenplay or book about "all the terrible stuff" Letterman had done.
The talk show host then admitted to having had sexual affairs with women employed by his show.
The following day, Robert "Joe" Halderman, a producer for CBS news programme
48 Hours, was indicted on a charge of grand larceny for seeking $2 million in hush money from Letterman. Mr Halderman faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Yesterday, Mr Halderman's attorney Gerald Shargel took to US morning talk shows to proclaim his client's innocence and say that Letterman's version of the story was only one side.