The White House is so far refusing to comment on a claim by Mrs Hillary Clinton that her husband suffered "abuse" as a child and that this may explain his philandering during their marriage.
In an interview with the new magazine, Talk, edited by Tina Brown, to be published tomorrow, the First Lady defends the President, saying his infidelities were "a sin of weakness, not a sin of malice".
It is the first time she has spoken publicly in detail about the effect on the Clinton marriage of her husband's affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky. Referring to this affair and others in the past, Mrs Clinton said, "I thought this was resolved 10 years ago . . . I thought he had conquered it."
A former White House aide to President Clinton has described the claim of childhood abuse as "a pretty startling revelation". Mr George Stephanopoulos, who worked for the President as a political adviser until 1997, said yesterday Mrs Clinton's interview has caused "a lot of surprise in the White House and even among Hillary's top team".
In the interview, Mrs Clinton said her husband "needs to be more disciplined but it is remarkable given his background that he turned out to be the kind of person he is, capable of such leadership.
"He was so young, barely four, when he was scarred by abuse. There was terrible conflict between his mother and grandmother."
The magazine, in a press release on the interview, does not provide details of the abuse. But at the time, in 1950, Mr Clinton's grandmother, Edith Cassidy, who was rearing the boy, was threatening to seek legal custody of him from his mother, Virginia, a widow who was about to marry a feckless car salesman called Roger Clinton.
Mrs Clinton, who is campaigning for a Senate seat in New York, told the interviewer, "Now for the first time I am making my own decisions. I can feel the difference. It is a great relief."
In the interview, which was reported in yesterday's Sunday Times, Mrs Clinton said her husband was "ashamed" and "sorry" for what he did but "does this negate everything he has done as a husband, a father, a President?"
She said, "There has been enormous pain, enormous anger, but I have been with him half my life and he is a very, very good man."