David Letterman Apologizes to Nell Scovell for Sexism From His "Late Night" Days

Ten years ago, in the wake of his sex scandal — in which he disclosed on-air that he had inappropriate sexual relationships with members of his staff after a blackmail attempt — Nell Scovell wrote a piece about her experience as a writer on David Letterman’s Late Night show calling him out for the workplace’s “sexually charged atmosphere” and pointing out his lack of interest in hiring women writers.

Letterman never read the piece — until now, when he and Scovell reunited for a conversation about it for Vanity Fair. To his credit, Letterman seems to have taken her words to heart, offering her an apology. “I thought, Holy shit, this is so disturbing and, sadly, a perspective that I did not have because the only perspective I had was in here,” he told her in the piece, gesturing to himself. “I’m sorry I was that way and I was happy to have read the piece because it wasn’t angering. I felt horrible because who wants to be the guy that makes people unhappy to work where they’re working? I don’t want to be that guy. I’m not that guy now. I was that guy then.”

Letterman also explained that he lacked good examples of how to interact with women growing up. “I never had anyone in my life sit down and talk to me — not in school, not at home, not in church — about how a man of age behaves with a woman of age,” he said. “It just didn’t happen. You picked it up from your buddies.”

Still, he takes full responsibility for his failure to hire more women writers, a failing he insists would not happen today. “It was sloppiness,” he told Scovell. “Inertia. I see it differently now and if I were to start a show today, holy God, I’m certain there’d be mistakes, but not the mistakes that were just so gosh-dang obvious.”

Scovell says that her meeting with Letterman is part of a necessary dialogue between men and women. “Even better than making Dave laugh is having Dave acknowledge that I told the truth,” she writes. “In the past decade, I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words about women in the workplace, but the main point boils down to six: Believe women. Hire women. Respect women.”

You can read her full conversation with David Letterman here.

Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.