Hooker in Spitzer sex-scandal finally breaks her silence

New York, Nov 19 : Ashley Dupre, the hooker behind New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's downfall, has finally broken her silence over the sex-scandal that led to the politician's resignation.

Dupre said the only thing that still haunts her is the look on his wife's face as he announced he was resigning as governor.

Speaking in detail for the first time since the 4,300 dollars stint that sank Spitzer's once-promising political career, Dupre claims what happened with the governor inside Washington's Mayflower Hotel on Feb. 13, was "strictly business."

"I try not to revisit that place too often, but when I think about his speech, I think of her face, her eyes, the hurt," The New York Post quoted her as telling People magazine in an interview.

And the only thing she could say to Silda Wall Spitzer, would be: "I'm sorry for your pain."

She said that she hadn't realized who "Client No. 9" was when she hooked up with him in Room 817. Without any security in sight, she didn't realise the stature of her rather 'elite' client.

And it was when her mother, Carolyn, who told her to flip on the TV, that she saw Spitzer announcing his resignation.

That's when she realized the man who had paid her for sex was the governor of New York.

"I mean, ask a lot of 22 year olds," she said. "I was wrapped up in my family, my music. I knew the name, but the face . . . I'm not really a TV person," she said.

Besides, she said, "I was there for a purpose - not to wonder who [he] could be."

She added: "Some guys, they want to have conversations and really get to know each other. With him, it clearly was not like that. It was more of a transaction. Strictly business." Just after days of seeing him on TV, Dupre was revealed to be "Kristen," the girl who hooked up with the ex-governor.

She hid in her apartment, scared to face the media from around the world that had camped outside her building.

Eventually, she managed to sneak out by hiding under a blanket in a car.

She was then taken to a "safe house" her lawyer had arranged for her. "I felt like a Bond girl," she told the magazine.

However, on the advice of her lawyer, Dupre refused to divulge any more details of the evening or say whether she and Spitzer had hooked up previously.

She did say that she doesn't feel guilty about his downfall, noting that if she hadn't been sent to the hotel that night, somebody else would have been.

Dupre said she doesn't hold a grudge against Spitzer - "I think he's been punished enough" - but the months since the scandal broke have been tough on her.

She said that the media spotlight has been "very hard," and added that she has undergone "intense" psychotherapy since March.

"But I'm a survivor," she said.

ANI