60 Minutes Correspondent Sorry for Affair

This time he has to answer the tough questions in a story you won’t see on 60 Minutes.

60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft has come clean about a steamy affair with a New York City lawyer that included hot hotel hookups and racy text messages.

The National Enquirer was the first to report on the affair the 69-year-old reporter had with the married 41-year-old lawyer he met at the St. Regis hotel bar in Manhattan in 2011. The tabloid also published racy texts between the lovers, such as “Come and let me devour u,” one of the journalist’s alleged texts to Goines—and one of the tamer ones.

“I had an extramarital affair which was a serious lapse of personal judgment and extremely hurtful to my wife and family, and for that I have nothing but regret,” said Kroft in a statement to People magazine. “My wife and I are committed to each other, and are working hard to get past this, and consider it a private matter.”

Kroft, who once famously confronted then-governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton about his rumored womanizing, convinced the Harvard-educated Lisan Goines that he was trapped in a sexless marriage with his wife, author and fellow journalist Jennet Conant. The pair then launched into a three-year affair — the details of which would never get past the censors of Kroft’s award-winning 60 Minutes show.

Kroft insists his affair never interfered with his job. “This was a personal failure, not a professional one, and had no impact whatsoever on my job as a journalist,” said Kroft.

Kroft, a five-time Peabody Award winner, has been with 60 Minutes for 26 years and with the network for 31 years.