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tv   Larry King Live  CNN  January 28, 2010 9:00pm-10:00pm EST

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napolitano, mocked one right-wing website. the afp photographer who took the picture said she wasn't asleep. not unless she was sleep clapping. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> that's it for us. larry king starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> larry: tonight the late night wars land leno on oprah. >> so you thought one cheap shot deserved another? >> yeah, it's okay. >> i thought that was denooet you actually. >> larry: jay is returning as host of the tonight show. can he reclaim ratings and nice guy reputation? >> now you're being made to look like the bad guy? >> i'm going to work hard to try to rehabilitate that image. >> larry: elizabeth and john edwards have split. she stood by her cheating political husband for three years. even met his out of wedlock little daughter. what made her call it quits now?
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then a gay, sex and drug scandal destroyed ted haggard's megachurch ministry and devastated the family. why did his wife, gayle, choose to forgive and stay married? all that and amazing musical pairing, next on "larry king live." you all know the story. conan o'brien left nbc after a very public battle with the network. jay leno was set to return as host of the tonight show and once again today he spoke publicly about what happened. joining us to discuss it all, tom shales, the washington post tv columnist wrote a book "live from new york." jerry penicoli, correspondent from extra is here. dick cabot, the former "tonight show" writer for jack par and johnny carson. host of his own late night talk show back then. jay was on oprah today. here's what he had to say about
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conan. >> have you talked to conan in person since all this? >> no, i haven't. haven't. >> did you want to pick up the phone? >> yeah, but it didn't seem appropriate. >> why? >> i don't know. i think -- let things cool down and maybe we'll talk. >> do you feel bad for conan at any point? >> i did. i felt really bad for conan. i think it's unfair, but tv is not fair. i thought it was unfair for me. >> you felt that for conan but you didn't think you were the reason? >> i wasn't the reason. the reason were the ratings. >> uh-huh. >> larry: all right. tom shales, who is probably now the dean of american television critics, what do you make of all this? >> what can be made of it other than it's a horrible, horrible mess? i don't think 20 years ago when dick cabot was on the air we would have had this kind of public airing on this stuff when they would come out on their own shows and bad mouth one another
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and bad mouth the media. television never really did have a backstage. it's been out in the open there. not to this degree, though. >> larry: does anyone come out looking good? >> you know, i think at this point letterman looks pretty good. seriously. >> larry: he's been taken them on every night. >> i think seriously, though, you know, this is all about business and what we're forgetting. back when the decision was made in 2004 that jay leno would not be doing the "tonight show" in 2009, i mean, think about that. that decision was made five years before. the guy had to do his show for five years knowing there was an expiration date. both guys are very funny. both guys are very different. both guys are going to be okay. >> larry: dick, i want you to watch this clip and comment. oprah asks jay if he's been selfish. >> this is almost the perfect storm of bad things happening. you have two hit shows, "tonight show," number one, conan number one. you both -- you move them both
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to another situation. what are the odds that both would do extremely poorly? now, if conan's numbers had. a little bit higher it wouldn't be an issue. in show business there's always somebody waiting in the wing. >> because if conan's numbers had been higher you would have never been asked to go back to take the time slot. >> i never expected this to happen. >> larry: dick, do you think jay should have turned down taking back a job that conan only had for seven months? >> i don't have reason to think so. jay is too smart not to have smelled a rat from the very beginning. not just five years ago where they told him in effect we can do without you. in knowing as he has said, as i think i have seen, going at 10:00 never seemed like a terribly great idea. of course it wasn't. i mean, the whole thing is one of the dumbest things to happen in the media.
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i don't know. we were on about this before, weren't we, larry? i wonder if i said to you then at the height of the frenzy that i could see nbc from the window here and they put out a banner saying mission accomplished. >> larry: tom, did conan do the right thing, do you think? >> i think as much as he could. he didn't have much latitude either way. what else could he have done? if he is walking away with $40 million and a contract to do a sitcom for nbc which is another little irony of all this, you know, they all hate each other but they'll do business with each other even so. it's a kind of a crazy bunch of contradictions and ironies in this thing. yeah, i think conan of all of them looks the least culpable in this. he seems like mostly -- more the victim certainly than jay who doesn't have a victim's bone in his body i don't think. >> tom, isn't this something --
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maybe this is what you already said. of the idea that people go around saying, why, they didn't keep their word. people keep their word all through show business except when money rears its head then word goes out the nearest window. >> larry: jerry, do you think leno can top letterman again going back? >> anything can happen at this point. i think the huge variable here is where and if conan shows up on another late night show. you know -- >> larry: do you think he will? >> i mean, there's a good chance, i mean, the talk is that he could end up at fox. there's a big problem there. the afafiliates need a lot of convincing because they make a lot of money in late night syndication. the pot has to be sweetened there for them. there's obviously a chance leno can recoup that audience. >> larry: tom, where do you think conan lines up? >> maybe on a cable network. they haven't made inroads into late night tv very much. he could be the first cable star
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in late night, you know, present company accepted. you don't do the kind of talk show conan does. i walked right into the wall there. >> larry: wouldn't it make sense for him to go to comedy central? >> or something like it, exactly. he would be less censored. he'd have more latitude on the cable network and might give him advantage in a way. i think jay is damaged goods. i don't think public is going to flock back anything like the numbers they used to have. >> that's ironic that reduced their man, enhanced letterman, the enemy, boosted his raitings. >> larry: the only way to sum this up is the inmates are running the jail. good seeing you. john and elizabeth edwards have separated after 32 years of marriage. just after a week he publicly announced he's the father of his mistress' child. after years of sticking by him what was elizabeth's final breaking point? we're going to find out right after this.
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>> larry: elizabeth and john edwards have split up, revealed on this program by john edwards's former top aide last week. wait until you see "people" magazine tomorrow. there's the cover. it all is about the breakup. lts senior editor of "people" is with us in new york. roy sekoff, founder editor of huffingtonpost.com is with us. elizabeth is moving on with her
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life and wants to put his difficult chapter behind her. it was an excruciatingly painful period for her. she has no interest in rehashing the past. based on the limited portions of the book that have been made available it is clear it contains many falsehoods and exaggerations. she will not engage in a dialogue on each of the false charges but would like to set the record straight on two key points. first the allegation she sought to politicize her cancer is unconscionable, hurtful and pat tently false. second she believes andrew young to be the father of this child until her husband confessed his paternity to her this past summer. the book she referred to is andrew young's just released "the the cover story says elizabeth's breaking point. the breaking point was what? >> this separation has been a long time coming. over the past three years elizabeth has one to deal with one tawdry revelation after
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another coming out, one lie after another being uncovered. she finally said, you know what, i am done. i've had it. i can't do this anymore. >> larry: this should not be surprising, is it? >> larry, remember when the worst thing they said about john edwards was when he spent too much on a haircut? now he's the direct boy. >> larry: what happened to him? >> larry, it's like a greek tragedy or bad telenovia. this guy has become the poster child for ambition and hypocrisy. when he was a senator he trashed bill clinton for his affair with monica lewinsky then turns around and makes a sex tape with his pregnant girlfriend while his wife has cancer? how far can you fall? >> larry: did you talk to elizabeth? did people talk to her directly? >> we talked to elizabeth's sister as well as to john's parents about how elizabeth has been coping and what the relationship of john is with his baby daughter he fathered with rielle hunter. >> larry: what is the relationship?
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>> well, in fact, john has been paying child support for about a year now and he also has a visitation arrangement in place. he intends to be a full father to this child and to raise her as he did his other children. >> larry, that came two years late. i mean, the baby was born two years ago this february and for denying the paternity for so long, you know, and even his confession when he made the confession on "nightline," that was a lie. >> larry: why do you think she stayed? >> i think she invested a lot in this guy. that's the sad thing. there was so much between them. this connection with the son dying in the car accident before and then all of the struggles to have the two younger kids. it's really a horrible story. >> larry: she gets it rough in the bestseller, "game change," the number-one book in the country now. they're not kind in elizabeth at all. does she discuss that or does her sister discuss that? >> she doesn't discuss that.
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john is one who told those closeest to him, you know what, you can drag me through the mud but leave elizabeth out. she does not deserve this at all. pick on me all you want but leave elizabeth alone. >> larry: she wrote the book "resilience." appeared on this program. a wonderful guest. is this a facade? we know john was. is elizabeth -- >> larry, last night obama in his state of the union address talked about the things that create cynicism. it's stories like this. she's a very sympathetic figure but at some point she has to accept throughout the campaign she lied to the american people. she was a party to lying to the voters. >> larry: do you know where john is living now? >> yes, john is actually splitting his time between an annex on the couple's property in chapel hill, north carolina, but also at their beach house with which is his main residence. he's not sharing a home with e liz beth. she has kicked him out. >> larry: does she retain her
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popularity? >> not as much. she's a sympathetic figure. she has stage 4 cancer. i think people are really -- this is the kind of story where nobody comes out good. john edwards obviously comes out horribly. in this book rielle hunter -- she was cussing out andrew young when she said john edwards had to fly back when elizabeth was re-diagnosed with cancer. >> larry: what's andrew young's story? >> he was definitely a close confidant of john edwards. he was a trusted intimate. if you believe his claims he was really the guy that john turned to when he needed help the most. >> larry: he asked him to take the rap for him. >> he said take a bullet for me and he did. i mean, here's the weird part, larry. remember he actually had rielle move in with his wife and children in that house in north carolina. that was some kind of strange sitcom. >> larry: what would have happened if he were elected president? >> oh, gosh, i think it would have been disastrous. in this day and age you cannot
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keep these sorts of thing s quiet. what's amazing about all of this is john edwards actually thought he somehow could. >> larry: the pulitzer committee would consider the national enquirer because they call it a magazine. do they deserve it? >> that's the amaze thing about the story. we discuss the national enquirer. >> larry: they broke it. >> they broke it and stayed on it and were relentless. the huffington post had the first story when we discovered the tapes rielle shot. they took them down. >> larry: "people" magazine will be out tomorrow. elizabeth's breaking point. thank you, both. senior editor. roy sekoff, founding editor of huffingtonpost.com. appreciator ted haggard shocked his wife. admitting to being with a gay escort. more than three years later they're still together. why did she forgive him? we'll ask her in 60 seconds. nen
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>> larry: a 2006 gay, sex and drug scandal destroyed ted haggard's new life megachurch ministry. he told his wife he was toxic and she should dors him. after three decades of marriage and three kids gayle haggard went on loving her husband and forgave him. she chronicles in an extraordinary new book "why i stayed: the choices i made in my darkest hour." the book is right here. see its cover. this program is included in the book, by the way, as they made an appearance on this show. they join us here tonight. gayle, why did you write this? >> i felt as though there was so much misinformation out. first of all i wanted to correct that and i wanted to represent myself and my family in my story. secondly i felt as though it's such an amazing story that might give hope to some people in similar situations. >> larry: what was the biggest misinformation in. >> well, i think there was a lot of misinformation about what ted
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actually did. ted had taken several lie detector tests that were never reported as he was trying to prove what was true and what was false in the allegations that were made against him. >> larry: nonetheless he did confess things to you? >> he did confess. he told me early on that some of the allegations were true. he wanted to sort out what was actually fact and what was just -- came from the imagination of some of the accusers. >> larry: the essence of what was fact, ted, were you did have some gay experiences, right? >> yeah. and the reason i responded the way i did was because my faith said if you violate any portion of the law you violate all of it. rather than to get in to tit for tat what i did and didn't do, though the charges were grossly exaggerated, i wanted to submit to the church. i wanted to be humble. i wanted to be sub missive. i wanted to be kind and i wanted
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to model personal responsibility. >> larry: did you preach against gays? >> not in a hateful way, certainly, and not in a way other than saying i believe god has a perfect plan for our life and every one of us need to strive for that perfect plan. >> larry: during any of this did you feel hypocritical? >> i felt hypocritical in that whenever you teach the scripture you teach ideals. pray continually. love people always. always forgive. things like that. and so inherent in that is teaching an ideal and in the struggle, yourself, to live up to that ideal. >> larry: why did you forgive him, gayle? >> because i knew he was more than this struggle. i knew we spent almost 30 years together and there was so much to salvage in our relationship that worth fighting for. i knew that my faith directed me how to heal with him, how to forgive him, how to love him, so
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i defended on those principles of scripture to do that. >> larry: are you surprised at what elizabeth edwards did? >> i'm not surprised. i certainly don't know all the details of their story and having been the recipient of all kinds of judgments based on misinformation i wouldn't want to jump into that one. i just -- i feel badly that they're going through what they're going through. >> larry: did you consider divorce? >> i never considered dors. >> larry: does that shock you, lived my life with the church and everything they would be better off financially and certainly bet ur off reputation wise if they would have separated from me. so for them to stay with me, for gayle and the children to stay with me meant they would -- well, i told them, we'll probably be in abject poverty the rest of our life and never recover from the shame. >> larry: did you think of leaving, yourself, then? >> yes. well, never in the form of divorce. i got so low i became suicidal there for a while and what's important that's in the book
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that gayle covers so well is the decisions that she made that were very difficult and heart wrenching for she and the children, those decisions provide an environment within which i could be healed. i think if they wouldn't have made the decisions that they made then i couldn't have made the decision i made and that's why -- i didn't read the book until after it was finished. i didn't participate in the writing of the book. and i was shocked. i thought -- when i finished i cried and then i said, gayle haggard is a combination of mother teresa and margaret thatcher and golda meir. she's a strong woman with compassion and love. >> larry: we're going to ask gayle when we come back what was the hardest thing to forgive. "why i stayed: the choices i made in my darkest hour." the author is gayle haggard here with her husband, ted. thanks for coming.
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most people find that the most interesting segment where i talk about having to work through that. that very first night i had to make that decision and i remember coming up to the bedroom thinking through everything that i was hearing and all the implications of what my husband had confessed to me and when i got in to bed, of course it was quiet and suddenly he reached out his hand for me and when he did that, that was my point of decision and i decided to take his hand. >> larry: you now have a normal physical relationship? the two of you? >> we never stopped having a normal physical relationship. we have our whole marriage. i would say now what is so wonderful is the intimacy that we have on all levels of our marriage. >> larry: have you stopped all desires for same-sex encounters? >> yeah. it was interesting. that's what was confusing. i was such a heterosexual. for this experience to happen was shocking.
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that's what caused the confusion in the hbo documentary "trials of ted haggard." once i got into therapy they said that relates to a childhood traumatic incident. we can put you through trauma resolution therapy and that will give you the tools to deal with it and that's why my situation is different than a homosexual man dealing with issues or a bisexual -- >> larry: surely you can't condemn homosexuality? >> i do not. i think all of us need redemption. >> larry: on the day after he confessed to his family a tv interview, i spoke with ted as he, gayle and several of his children were pulling out of their driveway. watch. >> the voice expert in denver hired by kusa has matched now 18 of the words left on the voicemail message. >> i did call him. i did call him. >> what did you call him about? >> i called him to buy some meth but i threw it away. >> who were you buying the meth for? >> i was buying it for me.
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i never used it. >> did you use meth before? >> i did not. i did not ever use it with him. >> did you ever have sex with him? >> no, i did not. >> at what point did you decide to throw away the meth? >> right after. i never kept it very long because it was wrong. i was tempted. i bought it. but i never used it. >> larry: do you have anger toward the man that revealed -- >> i'm grateful to him. i think if he wouldn't have come out the way he did, even though he exaggerated things, if he wouldn't have come out i could have become an addict. i lied in two interviews after the crisis started to break. i couldn't grasp it was really happening and i was scared of legal prosecution at that point. so i lied in two interviews. gayle and i had our meeting where i said i'm going to tell you the whole truth and i'm going to take full responsibility for this and walk through that process. that's what we've been doing for the last three years. >> larry: more with the haggards in a moment. now it's time for our cnn hero
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and ted haggard, this extraordinary book titled "why i stayed: the choices i made in my darkest hour." we're going to take a call from maine. hello. >> caller: hi, larry, my question is to gayle. if ted's affair had been with a woman would she had stayed in the relationship? >> i do -- i would have stayed in the relationship, but i think there would have been a whole other set of emotions that i would have had to deal with. >> larry: harder? >> i don't know that it would have been harder. it would have just been different. many women have told me they think that would have been harder. i think -- i wouldn't know until i had to this face that. >> larry: ted, your church kind of deserted you, didn't they? they didn't want this book to be published. they were angry at you. >> they wanted me to leave and be quiet.
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i have resurrection life inside of me and so does gayle. we're thankful to be where we are right now. >> larry: how do you earn a living? >> we travel and speak on weekends and we thoroughly enjoy that. >> larry: you get paid? >> we don't charge a fee but if they choose to give us a gift in exchange for being there we accept that. >> larry: you don't go to a house of worship? >> we don't. we're not currently members of a church. that's right. we're sad about that. that's where we are right now because we're traveling most weekends and it's thrilling, the churches we go to. every church we've been to has been incredible. >> larry: all demom nations? >> all different denominations and sizes. there are two things about them. one, they have a practical application of the gospel. they really apply the gospel and are helpful. two, they have courage to invite a sinner like me. >> larry: gayle, do you ever doubt your faith? >> i haven't doubted my faith in this process but i have
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redefined it -- >> larry: from what to what? >> early on i was so satisfied with my faith walk and felt as though my life was just wonderful. everything that was in my marriage, my family, seemed to be going very well for me. then i went through this very dark time where i felt as though there was nothing good. all the people around me seemed to be failing me. i felt like all the solid ground i once stood on felt like shifting sand to me, but i held on by a thread because i really trusted god was going to show me my way through that and i believe he did. >> larry: take another call. charlotte, north carolina, for the haggards. hello. >> caller: hello, larry. >> larry: hi. >> caller: mr. and mrs. haggard, i wanted to know, did god tell you to smoke crystal meth and have a homosexual affair? >> no, god did not do that. that was me.
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the worst part of me. >> larry: you said during the break tiger woods' wife ought to read this book. >> i know the woods family is going through horrible pain right now. we went through a three-week intensive gayle talks about in the book. >> larry: you went together? >> we went through it together. that's where they discovered childhood trauma issues we could take care of and help me. and if the reports are true that tiger is going through that right now, well i know he loves his wife and loves his children and some of the principles in that book are just outstanding. i've never read them in print before and i would encourage anyone that's interested in a strong, healthy, vibrant relationship to read gayle's book. i was taken aback. i know gayle well. i was taken aback when i read it. >> larry: what would you say, gayle, to mrs. woods? >> i would try to encourage her that if tiger is truly repentent and that's something between the two of them, if she feels as
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though she is, that perhaps she can find it in her heart to forgive him and to love him. however, i would never try to project on her what that would look like for her. >> larry: we'll ask about their take on gay marriage when we come back. anncvo: with the new geico glovebox app... anncr vo: ...you can get help with a flat tire... anncr vo: ...find a nearby tow truck or gas station... anncr vo: ...call emergency services... anncr vo: ...collect accident information. anncr vo: or just watch some fun videos. anncvo: it's so easy, a caveman can do it. caveman: unbelievable... caveman: where's my coat? it was suede with the fringe. vo: download the glovebox app free at geico.com. it's delicious.
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>> larry: we're back with the haggards. the book "why i stayed," gay marriage. >> well, i think there ought to be a quality for all. i think marriage is the church's
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business and synagogues and religious institutions. probably the easiest route would be for states to accept civil unions for people whether secular or spiritual and if people want to go to a church or synagogue or religious institution -- >> larry: state shouldn't be in the marriage business? >> shat shouldn't be in the marriage business at all. state should be in the recognition so there's quality of all. >> larry: you lied to your wife and church. do you lie to god? >> i don't think you can. well, if you lie to god then, of course, he helps you straighten that out real fast. the holy spirit is given to us to making us a holy spirit. and so when we lie to god he convicts us. he corrects us. because he wants us to be better. >> larry: we received tons of twitters all in the same essence. do you believe someone can be cured, if that's the right word, or counseled out of being gay? >> i don't know anything about
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that. that just wasn't my story. gayle explains that in the book, that my story was just a different story than that. >> larry: what were the childhood things? >> when i was in the second grade one of my dad's employees had sex with me. it wasn't a traumatic experience, i didn't think, but it formed the way my mind processed things. and so then when i became a grown man i'd always had a normal heterosexual relationship with gayle that was wonderful and normal heterosexual attractions with this other thing going on. >> larry: what was going on? what were you saying to yourself? what were you thinking? >> there would be times -- >> larry: you didn't relate to the childhood trauma. that came out in counseling. >> there would be times -- it wasn't very often. i was perfectly fine 99.99999% of the time. there would be times when i would notice men. >> larry: did you wonder about
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why? >> absolutely. yeah. and so -- i wondered what it was. it wasn't normal. i would read things about homosexuality and bisexuality and i didn't fit in those boxes. that's why when gayle had to decide how to respond to me, which she describes in the book, it was a complex process for her to go through. >> larry: gayle, it must have floored you to learn this. >> well, certainly on many levels it was devastating to me. i started on the path of a real education on the subject. something that i -- >> larry: started to look into it? >> i really did and i learned so much about the diversity of our human makeup and all of us are the way we are for a reason and i learned that things happen in our lives that condition us in our sexuality. certainly i believe -- i do believe what the scriptures teach about homosexuality. i do believe it is not god's best plan for us.
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however, i think we need to be compassionate with each other because all of us are the way we are for a reason. none of us chooses to have the particular difficulties that may spring up in our lives but they are us and we have to deal with it. >> larry: brendan in georgia. another call, hello. >> caller: thanks for taking my call. ted, do you really believe that you are cured from your gayness? >> larry: well -- >> that's a different story than mine is. >> larry: your story is your story. do you think it will never happen again? >> here's what i think. i think i've gotten healthier and i think growth in life is a process of dealing with issues that happen to us and trying to remain as healthy as we can. i've become more of the man i wanted to be. i believe i'm more of the man god wants me to be and i'm a healthier man.
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>> larry: we'll be back with more of gayle haggard and her husband, ted.
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>> larry: anderson cooper standing by in port-au-prince. he'll host "a.c. 360" at the top of the hour. what's the lead tonight? >> larry, a lot of stories here from port-au-prince. just a few seconds ago i wanted to show you what we saw. an impromptu parade of hundreds of people dancing, singing down the street, expressing their faith in god. expressing their faith in this
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country. their faith in their own survival. sign that even in the worst of times the people here are strong and they are celebrating their lives and want to send that message to the world. also tonight, larry, another survivor, young woman rescued from the rubble believed to be trapped there since the earthquake hit. 15 days she was trapped. how could she survive? gaurry tuchman has an update. new video to show you tonight. haitian government's first attempt to distribute food to hungry people in an orderly fashion. didn't turn out that way. people shoving to get the food. we'll look at rebuilding haiti. education system is collapsed. how is it going to rebuild? that and the stories of children ahead. what is their condition? those stories and more on "360." >> larry: anderson cooper doing youman-like work in port-au-prince, haiti. 10:00 eastern, 7:00 pacific. another call for the haggards.
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boca raton, florida. hello. >> caller: hey, larry, how are you? >> larry: fine, what's the question? >> caller: i've watched you over the last couple years and i've found you've been arrogant and narcissistic in line of questioning. i think you should show the pastors a little more respect. >> larry: i'm sorry. >> caller: how do they rekindle their relationship? >> larry: how do they what? >> caller: how have they rekindled their relationship? >> larry: you write about it. that was the key of rekindling it? >> i think we make a choice to love someone. and when i chose to love ted that -- that brought with it all kinds of compassion and a desire to understand him and to be there for him, to be his friend, to care for him and so that's been ongoing in this process. >> larry: sylvester, georgia, hello. >> caller: yes. i'd like to ask ted what his
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take on homosexuality is? my bible says it's a sin. >> yeah. what i encourage people to do is read their bibles and pray about it and come to the conclusions about god's best plan for their life. i'm not in a position to preach to anybody else. >> larry: do you think it's a choice? >> oh, yeah. well, i think -- >> larry: why would someone choose -- >> i think some things in our life are choices. other things in our life are not. i think it's different in different people. depending on what's going on in their lives -- >> larry: we don't choose heterosexuality, do we? >> we don't choose our height, our eye color. there are other things we do choose. we choose to whom we're sexually active, with whom we're sexually active. we choose how much we eat. we choose how much we exercise. >> larry: i don't choose i like bananas and don't like eggs. i didn't choose that. >> what's fascinating right now is they're doing a lot of research on why that is.
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why preferences are established in the brain. why one person likes strawberry ice cream one minute and chocolate another. >> larry: we don't know why one is gay. >> we probably will in 50 or 60 years. so i encourage people rather than me telling them, i'm not an authority, i'm the sinner. so read your bible. pray and come to the conclusion. by the way, let me say one more thing about the earlier caller. when i was in my darkest hour, suffering horribly, larry king called me and encouraged me on my little cell phone. he's not arrogant. he's not high minded. he was loving to he and my family and we appreciate it. >> larry: thank you. i urge you to get this book. this is an important book. congratulations on it, gayle. >> thank you. >> larry: good seeing you again. >> good to see you. >> larry: make this the first of many trips. the book "why i stayed: the choices i made in my darkest
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hour." mary j. blige and andrea bocelli are here with david foster making a big announcement. stay tuned to find out how they are helping haiti, next.
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>> larry: welcome back to "larry
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king live." joining us now, mary j. blige, the nine-time grammy winning recording artist and andrea bocelli, the world renowned tenor, along with david foster, 15-time grammy winning music producer. they have an announcement many make. you make it, david. >> we got together the 40th anniversary of the song "bridge over troubled water." the producer of the grammys picked this song for mary and andrea to sing as a tribute to that song and also a tribute to raise funds for what's happening in haiti and it's been in labor of love with these two great but diverse voices. >> larry: they'll sing it on the grammy's sunday night? >> they will. >> larry: how does it benefit haiti? >> all proceeds from steve jobs, target, interscope records, warner records, everybody is donating 100% to the red cross for haiti relief. >> larry: have you sung with and degree ya before? >> yes, i have.
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on his christmas album we did "what child is this." >> larry: what's it like to sing with him? >> amazing. it's a blessing, a gift. >> larry: a challenge? >> he's remarkable. it's absolutely a challenge. it's so different for me. i'm so happy, so honored. >> larry: andrea, you are so famous in the world of opera. is "bridge over troubled waters" difficult for you? >> this is a beautiful song. very beautiful song. but i think that in this case it's a very important song. because we know that there are many, many children suffering in haiti and this is the first reason for which i'm here. i love this country. i like very, very much to sing with mary j. blige but i know that all together we can do big things for many children suffering in this moment. this is the most important thing. >> larry: david, must be -- first as a producer to bring
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these two together. you produced the christmas album. >> i did for andrea where mary sang with andrea. i had help with my friend. when you take these two voices, they're so different. to find the common ground is -- it took a while to crack the code but we did. it's such an important project. i mean, you know, i mean to talk about haiti. now it's almost redundant. it's such a problem down there. >> larry: the song is 40 years old? >> 40. which makes you and i, larry, a lot older. >> larry: the song's older than you, mary. you must know this song from your childhood. >> my mom used to play the aretha franklin version when i was a child and i used to listen to it with her when she played it and sneak in and listen to it when she wasn't around. >> larry: does it have great meaning to you, andrea? >> what's that? >> larry: to sing it? does it have great meaning to sing the song? >> i remember when i was a child
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i knew already this song and i sang also this song in the piano bar when i was younger. >> larry: in the piano bar? >> yes. >> can you imagine andrea bocelli in a piano bar? >> i plaed in the piano bar all evening. with the money i bought many, many key boards. it was my passion. >> larry: why don't we go to a karaoke bar together? >> what i love about these two singers, they're so fearless. they'll do anything. such different walks of life musically but come together beautifully. that's the true mark of the superstar. >> larry: how has the haiti story affected you? >> heavily. it's a two-our plane ride, haiti. it's affecting me not to the extreme it is them. i have to put myself in their shoes to understand. it is home. i am them. >> larry: how is the concert tour going?
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andrea has sold out everywhere, right? >> yes, we did a christmas tour together and now more projects coming. hopefully i'll be involved with mary and apd andrea in the future. can you imagine hitting there getting paid to listen to these voices? >> larry: do you have a tour going? >> i definitely have a tour going. when? probably this spring sometime. >> larry: are you going to record more, andrea, with female singers? >> i like it. i record only with female singers. >> mary, you have an album out right now, right? >> it's called stronger with each tier, larry, and doing each -- >> larry: stronger with each tier. >> with each tier we cry we can only get stronger. >> larry: we're going to hear that song coming up now. grammy's sunday night. we'll see that performance. >> the great andrea bocelli and mary j. blige. >> larry: proceeds go to haiti.
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>> the red cross. >> larry: more images tonight from haiti set to mary j. blige's rendition of "each tear." ♪ much more than a struggle that you go through ♪ ♪ you're not defined by your pain so let it go ♪ ♪ you're not a victim you're more like a winner ♪ ♪ each tear there's a lesson, makes you rise and fall ♪ ♪ each tear brings you closer ♪ have no

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