Sex Scandal Sheds Light on David Letterman's Love Life

Oct. 2, 2009— -- When David Letterman claimed Thursday that a CBS News employee tried to blackmail him for $2 million by exposing the sexual affairs he had with female subordinates, the talk show host blasted open the door to his private life, which for years he has tried to keep tightly shut.

Despite nightly appearances in America's living rooms, Letterman, 62, has worked to keep his personal life hidden from public view, living in a tony Westchester, N.Y. suburb with his rarely seen wife, Regina Lasko, and their 6-year-old son.

When he told viewers about his marriage to Lasko earlier this year after their 23-year relationship, Letterman reflected on his long bachelordom.

"I secretly felt that men who were married admired me," he said, "like I was the last of the real gunslingers -- you know what I'm saying?"

Lasko, like a previous longtime Letterman girlfriend, Merrill Markoe, was also a former staffer, leading some observers to wonder if Letterman habitually forms romantic relationships with female co-workers.

According to a source close to Letterman, the staff liaisons the alleged extortionist, Robert "Joe" Halderman, 51, is accused of threatening to reveal occurred prior to Letterman's recent marriage.

Halderman, a producer for CBS News, pleaded not guilty to extortion charges Friday. He is being held on $200,000 bond.

As Letterman has gotten older, he has altered his image from the rogue host who played by his own rules to that of an elder statesman of television -- a sometimes mischievous great uncle who can joke about his heart surgery and rib dimwitted celebrities, but also a man with the gravitas to throw barbs at Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin.

His admission on the air Thursday to having not just a one-time romantic affair with a single staffer but to having "sex with women who work with me on this show," shed new light on what the public does know about his love life.

"This does not come as a real surprise," said E! Online columnist Ted Casablanca. "He has always lurked in this gray area of his romantic life. He has always blurred the lines between his personal and professional lives. He has a history of marching to his own romantic beat."

Letterman married his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cook, in 1968, when he was just 21 years old. The couple divorced nine years later, just as Letterman's comedy career was starting to take off.

Just before he was named the host of NBC's "Late Night With David Letterman" in 1982, he began dating Markoe, who would become the show's head writer and who originated classic Letterman bits like Stupid Pet Tricks.