Albany (New York, US), Apr.7 (ANI): Disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has described his tryst with hookers "as an egregious violation of my behavior that I fell into for many reasons".

Admitting that none of them are an excuse or justifiable," Spitzer told the Today Show in an interview that lasted for a little over eight minutes, that it crossed his mind that what he was doing was not correct.

"But like many things in life, you ignore the obvious at a certain moment because you simply don't want to confront it," he said.

"I have tried to address these gremlins and confront them. What I did was an egregious violation of trust to my family, to colleagues, to the state, and I paid a price and appropriately so," Spitzer said

Spitzer resigned on March 17, 2008 after it became public he was "client 9" in a federal prostitution investigation.

The Today Show interview was the latest step in Spitzer's re-introduction to public life. He has written an online column since late last year and recently did a radio and television interview focused almost exclusively on the AIG troubles.

He said he spoke with his wife, Silda, and three daughters before starting recently to resurface in the public eye.

"This is something that has caused excruciating pain to Silda, to my daughters, something that I carry with me every day because of the pain to them. So I try to balance the obligation to try to speak if asked, but also the pain to my family which has been enormous," he said.

In the end, Spitzer said he considers himself lucky.

"I'm very fortunate guy. I have a spectacular wife, three daughters who are wonderful, forgiving, and there's moments when you realize that those of the things that matter and those are the things that you should indeed pay attention to," the New York Daily News quoted him, as saying. (ANI)