After last Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate, “Good Morning America” co-anchor and “This Week” moderator George Stephanopoulos took criticism for his handling of a debate question about contraception and his persistence on the issue with GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.

On Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” on Wednesday, Stephanopoulos gave his side.

The question “was about the right to privacy,” Stephanopoulos said. “One of the candidates said he believes the states have the right to ban contraception. I was asking Mitt Romney the same question.”

However, he revealed that this was not the only motivation behind the question, saying that he had a bet with his co-moderator, “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer.

COLBERT: OK, OK. Romney’s basically saying you’re a silly little child. And the audience is going, “We hate him, too.” What does it feel like at that moment?

STEPHANOPOULOS: At that moment, I’m thinking, I really want to win this bet.

COLBERT: What was the bet?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Diane Sawyer bet me that I couldn’t get Mitt Romney to say “contraceptions are working just fine.”

COLBERT: Really?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I won.

COLBERT: You got him to say “contraceptions are working just fine.” Even though, from the number of children he has, he has no idea how they work.

Watch:

[dcvideo videoid=”24779900″ name=”ndnPlayer_24779900″ type=”ndn” /]

Follow Jeff on Twitter