David Letterman Marries Longtime Girlfriend

Mon., Mar. 23, 2009 3:15 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

bauergriffin.com

Who says you can't teach an old dog some new, not so stupid tricks?

David Letterman swapped vows with longtime love Regina Lasko Thursday afternoon in a no-frills courthouse ceremony. The newlyweds are parents of a 5-year-old son, Harry.

The 61-year-old Late Show host is planning to announce the big news on tonight's episode, where congratulations will be in order from guests Hugh Laurie and Sarah Paulson.

"On Thursday, at 3 p.m., March 19, 2009, at the Teton County Courthouse in Choteau, Montana, I was married to Regina Lasko," Letterman will say, according to CBS.

"Regina and I began dating in February of 1986, and I said, ‘Well, things are going pretty good, let's just see what happens in about 10 years.' I had avoided getting married pretty good for, like, 23 years, and I—honestly, whether this happened or not—I secretly felt that men who were married admired me…like I was the last of the real gunslingers, you know what I'm saying?"

Yup, that sounds about right for the guy who tended to pull the tightening-of-the-collar look whenever one of his guests asked about future plans to tie the knot.

This is the second marriage for Letterman, who spent nine years with Michelle Cook before divorcing in 1978.

Not that round two went off without a hitch—in fact, Mother Nature almost didn't let it happen.

When Letterman, Lasko and Harry set off for the courthouse Thursday, they ended up getting stuck in the mud.

"So now we think, ‘Well, somebody'll come—no, nobody comes along," Letterman says. "Nobody comes along—it's Thursday afternoon, who's coming along, Zorro?"

"So I get out of the truck and I walk two miles back to the house into a 50-mile-an-hour wind. It's not Beverly Hills, it's Montana, for God's sakes. And the whole way, I'm thinking, ‘See, smart ass, see, see, you try to get married, this is what happens. See, well, you've got nobody to blame but yourself. Could have happened any other day, but you wait now, see, this is what you get.'"

But what Letterman got in the end was married.