Denise Rich Denies Wrongdoing

April 27, 2001 -- Denise Rich admits that wealth helped her gain unique access to the first family, but says that she never had sex with President Clinton or even spent the night at the White House.

"I don't even know what the Abraham Lincoln bedroom looks like," she tells 20/20's Barbara Walters in her first television interview since Clinton's controversial pardon of her ex-husband on Jan. 20.

"I never had a sexual relationship or anything else that's improper," she says. "Any kind of relationship that would be improper with President Clinton."

Rich, 57, also says she never understood the gravity of her ex-husband's alleged crimes and never intended her appeal for a presidential pardon to get her friend Clinton into trouble.

Marc Rich fled prosecution on tax-evasion charges in 1983 and was pardoned by Clinton in the final hours of his presidency.

"I'm not here to defend him, I'm not his lawyer," she says. "To this day, I don't really know what he's done and what he hasn't done."

Rich says her husband simply told her, "'I'm having tax problems with the government, we're going to have to leave.' And my response was, 'I am his wife, these are my children, I'm not going to split up my family.'"

They fled to Switzerland with their three daughters, and Marc Rich became one of America's 10 most wanted fugitives.

No Ulterior Motive

Denise Rich declined to discuss the specifics of the pardon, since it is currently under investigation by Congress.

It is known, however, that she attached a personal letter to Clinton with her ex-husband's pardon petition. "I support his application with all my heart," she wrote. "Marc is not a criminal."

Rich denies that her generous gifts to Clinton campaigns helped buy the pardon, or that she had any ulterior motive in giving them. "I feel what I did was right and I would do it again," she says.

Regrets and Reconciliation

She tells Walters she regrets the pardon caused such a controversy for the former president.

"I had no idea that this would ever happen," she says. "I am sorry that this has caused President Clinton and his family any pain."

Rich says she supported her ex-husband's pardon application in spite of their difficult divorce, which involved legal wrangling over money. She says their split was in part due to his affair with a younger woman, which Denise Rich says was devastating to her.

"The truth is I was very angry, very bitter," she says.

She attributes her improved relations with her ex-husband to the loss of their daughter Gabrielle, who died in 1996 after a bout with leukemia.

"When you've lost a child, everything changes," Rich says. "I felt, in my heart, forgiveness."

Privileged Access

As her marriage began to fall apart, Rich returned to New York and became increasingly involved in Democratic politics. She raised and personally donated millions to the Democratic Party, including Bill Clinton's presidential library and Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for Senate.

Getting involved in politics "thrilled" her because, she says, "I could be with like-minded people who feel the way I do about politics."

It also gave her privileged access to the White House. "Oh yes, that's true," she acknowledges. "Of course."

By her own count, Rich visited the White House between 12 and 18 times over the course of Clinton's two terms.

She denies allegations that her donations were in fact coming from her ex-husband as a way to buy his pardon. "That came from me, from my money," she insists.

'A Simple Girl From Massachusetts'

In addition to the fortune that Rich received from her ex-husband in their divorce settlement, she has a lucrative career as a songwriter. She has written lyrics for some of the biggest names in music, including Aretha Franklin and Celine Dion.

Although she lives in a 28-room Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City with a staff of 20, Rich tells Walters that she is "a simple girl from Massachusetts, and no matter what glamour I've had in my life, or whatever money has come into my life, I'm still that girl."