Mitt Romney didn't really want to win, his son Tagg Romney claims in a recent interview.

"He wanted to be president less than anyone I've met in my life," Tagg Romney told the Boston Globe. "If he could have found someone else to take his place . . . he would have been ecstatic to step aside."

The oldest Romney son said his father is a "private person" who wanted to help put the country back on its feet, but hated the limelight that came with presidential politics.

Tagg Romney told the newspaper that he and his mother Ann had to convince Mitt Romney to run for the presidency.

The Emotional Side of Men in Politics

Since his November defeat, Romney's November loss to President Obama has been attributed to many things including a huge turnout of minority voters, a decline in white male voters, a boost in Obama's approval rating, Romney's 47 percent comment. But Romney's desire, the proverbial "fire in the belly," had never been questioned.

Between the 2008 and 2012 primaries, the Massachusetts governor spent almost $42.5 million of his own cash just to win the Republican nomination. And this year's run was the second attempt by Romney to win the White House.

Now that the election is over Romney has become a very private person again. His Nov. 29 White House lunch with Obama was his only public appearance in Washington since the election.

William Crotty, author of the book "Winning the Presidency 2008," said he could understand both aspects of Romney's run.

Crotty served as Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at Northeastern University from 1998-2008, both before and after Romney's term as governor of Massachusetts.

Romney, Crotty said, is "very bright" and "most of all ambitious," but he has no love for politics.

"Clearly he did want to be president," Crotty told ABC News, "but I can see what they're saying."

"What drives the president is not necessarily what makes them most comfortable."