Longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft considers his extramarital affair "a serious lapse of personal judgment," adding that the liaison was "extremely hurtful to my wife and family," according to a statement he made to the New York Post's Page Six.

The 69-year-old CBS newsman, who is married to fellow journalist Jennet Conant, 55, had a "long-running affair with another woman," the news channel recalled. "For that, I have nothing but regret," Kroft wrote. "My wife and I are committed to each other and are working hard to get past this, and consider it a private matter."

The National Enquirer supermarket tabloid on Wednesday had published embarrassing texts and emails between Kroft and a woman named Lisan Goines, Fox News detailed. In one such message, Kroft told Goines, "Come (to Washington) and let me devour you."

The paper said the two met in hotels in New York and Washington during the course of three years. The affair did not interfere with his "60 Minutes" duties, Kroft insisted. "This was a personal failure, not a professional one, and had no impact whatsoever on my job as a journalist," he said.

CBS News concurred, and "60 Minutes" spokesman Kevin Tedesco limited his response to Politico to noting that the affair was "a private matter."

Kroft has been with the network for three decades, Politico recalled. The 26-year "60 Minutes" veteran famously interviewed Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1992 about the extramarital affairs of the then-Arkansas governor and future president.

"His problem? Long-rumored allegations of marital infidelity finally surfaced in a supermarket tabloid," Kroft said as he introduced the segment, according to the Washington publication.

The affair between Kroft and Goines, meanwhile, had apparently ended amicably, the San Jose Mercury-News said. "Lisan never wanted (Kroft) to leave his wife, and she never contemplated leaving her husband -- and she told him it was best that it end," an unnamed source told the National Enquirer.

However, the two apparently remained friends and met up for drinks last month at New York's Southgate Bar & Restaurant, a few blocks from his Kroft's Upper West Side home, the San Jose Mercury-News added.

"They looked like lovers," a witness reported. "It was electric. They chatted like old friends over a couple of cocktails and gazed into each other's eyes. They were completely smitten."