(Click Here to Watch a Preview of President Clinton's Interview on Tonight's LATE SHOW)

Former President Bill Clinton talks about his daughter and her recent marriage when he visits the LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN, Monday, Sept. 20.

            Letterman congratulated President Clinton on his daughter Chelsea’s wedding this summer, and the host said, “Tremendous responsibility being a parent – being a parent and having people at the highest profile of public figures and awareness, that must be nearly impossible.  Everybody points to what a great job you and your wife did with your daughter.  How do you keep that in proper perspective, proper balance?”  “Well, I don’t know,” Clinton said. “I give a lot of credit to her mother and I give a lot of credit to her, but we worked at it.  We always tried to make her feel special and that she was loved, but not special because of who her parents were.  And I think she lives that way.  And, you know, I don’t think there’s – it’s not really mysterious…Kids keep score, they pay attention, and you need to be there for them.  And they know if you have to work, they get that, but I think that – you know, there was a study about, oh, 15, 20 years ago about people who made it against all the odds.  Every one of them had a caring adult in their lives who made them feel like they were the most important person in the world to them.  I don’t think this is really rocket science, but I do give a lot of credit to my daughter and to her mother, but we worked at it.  And we only were able to have one child, and we really always thought it was our most important job, Hillary and I both did.”  “Well, good,” Letterman remarked, “that’s a great thing to be able to say.”

            Letterman also asked President Clinton about his new son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, and Clinton said, “I’ve known him since he was in high school.  He and Chelsea were the closest of friends for half their lives.  They never even went out until about three years ago.  And they either fell madly in love or realized they always had been and just didn’t know it.  But it’s a wonderful thing because they know each other so well.  They went through all those tough high school years, all those college years as very, very close friends, and it’s quite wonderful to see them together, to see the relationship they have.  I feel very blessed that he’s a good man.  I not only care for him, but I genuinely admire him.  He’s a good man.”  Letterman then joked, “If I were in your position, here’s how I would want this:  I’d want him to be a little scared.  Is he?”  “I don’t think so,” Clinton laughed.  “He was good enough to come and ask for my permission, however, which I appreciated.  You know, it’s sort of an old-fashioned thing in this day and age, but that’s the kind of person he is.  It really meant a lot to me.”  Letterman remarked, “So, now you’ve balanced out the family:  you have two women, two men.”  Clinton joked, “Yeah, I finally have a chance…My main goal was to have a chance.  Hillary wanted this marriage because she wants to be a grandmother more than she wanted to be President.” 

            Letterman later held up some photos from Chelsea’s wedding and asked if it was true that President Clinton made it through walking his daughter down the aisle without crying.  “You were able to hold it together?” Letterman asked.  “I was, for two reasons,” Clinton said.  “One is I wanted it to be about her and not me.  And the second is she had a really big dress and I didn’t want to step on it, so I had to concentrate on starting out about four inches ahead of her and then I had to stay in step.”  President Clinton’s entire interview can be seen on the LATE SHOW tonight (11:35 PM-12:37 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. 

            The LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN is a production of Worldwide Pants Incorporated.  Barbara Gaines, Matt Roberts, Jude Brennan, Maria Pope, Eric Stangel, Justin Stangel and Rob Burnett are the executive producers.

Official CBS website:  http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/

*     *     *

Press Contact:              Kim Izzo-Emmet          212-975-3820 krizzo-emmet@cbs.com

Photo Contact:             Jeffrey Staab                212-975-4107 jrstaab@cbs.com