This is the remarkable, true story of a rich white male celebrity who abused his power and then apologized for it.

The story began in the summer of 1990, when I was hired to write on Late Night with David Letterman, and concluded three weeks ago, when I spent two hours talking with Dave in a Midtown conference room just blocks from the Ed Sullivan Theater. I’d requested the interview to mark the 10th anniversary of an article I wrote that publicly criticized my former boss.

The article explained how sexual favoritism had driven me to quit the show after only five months. (The only Letterman writer who quit faster was Louis C.K.) I also broke down how the hiring process for writers was rigged toward white men and offered suggestions for how the show could counter that ingrained bias. My fantasy was that Dave would take my advice, dump any dead weight, and hire some talented women and writers of color.

That didn’t happen. Dave never even read the article. So when he agreed to get together, I assigned it as homework.

“You know, the other night I read the piece that you wrote 10 years ago,” Dave told me on a rainy day earlier this month.

“It took you long enough,” I said.

“And 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.” Dave gestured 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.”

It’s not often that you speak truth to power and power responds, “Oops, sorry.” Still, copping to one’s failings after getting caught is kind of Dave’s signature move.

Dave’s scandal was ahead of the curve. Unlike other Hollywood men accused of having sex with subordinates, Dave didn’t deny and dismiss women as “liars.” Instead, he went on camera and admitted that he’d done “terrible, terrible” “creepy stuff.”

Dave was being squeezed in a blackmail scheme. The boyfriend of a Late Show staffer discovered a diary, which detailed a longtime affair between the (then) 34-year-old assistant and her (then) 62-year-old boss. The boyfriend devised a cunning plan: He threatened to write a screenplay that would expose the affair unless Dave gave him $2 million. Instead, Dave busted himself, announcing on TV, “I have had sex with women who work for me on this show.” The audience applauded and cheered.

The announcement didn’t surprise me. When I worked at Late Night, there were rumors about Dave and his assistant, Dave and NBC pages, Dave and interns, Dave and the models who appeared in sketches. The 2009 scandal made it clear that he was still treating the workplace like his personal hookup app. (Grindr, Tinder, Staffr...)