Report: McCready not proud of ties to Clemens

NEW YORK - Country singer Mindy McCready claims she broke off her relationship with Roger Clemens when the former baseball star wouldn't marry her, according to an interview to be broadcast Monday by the syndicated show ``Inside Edition.''

McCready said she met Clemens when she was 16, not 15, as reported by the New York Daily News last April. She told the news magazine they met in a karaoke bar, that her relationship with the pitcher didn't turn sexual until several years later and the relationship lasted for a decade.

``Carrying on a relationship with him is not something I'm proud of,'' she said, according to a partial transcript released by the show. ``Roger Clemens is one of the most wonderful men I've ever known. ... He treated me like a princess.''

Clemens in May denied having an affair with a 15-year-old but didn't specifically address whether he had a romance with McCready. He issued a statement that ``I have made mistakes in my personal life for which I am sorry.''

Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, did not respond to an e-mail for comment Monday.

``We never had a meeting in secret. We went on vacations together. We went to Palm Springs. We went to Las Vegas, New York City,'' McCready said. ``I wanted him to do right by me ... and when he wouldn't, I broke it off.''

McCready regrets any hurt inflicted on Debbie Clemens' the pitcher's wife.

``I have nothing but remorse and nothing but sympathy for what she's had to go through with this situation, and she has my utmost apology,'' she said.

McCready released from jail in Tennessee on Oct. 31 after serving about 30 days for violating probation on a 2004 drug charge. She only had to serve about half of her 60-day sentence because of credits she received for good behavior and doing janitorial work in the jail, the Williamson County Sheriff's Department said.

Now 32, she was accused in June of falsifying her community service records and charged with violating her probation. McCready received a suspended three-year sentence in 2004 for fraudulently obtaining prescription painkillers.

``There aren't words to describe how painful it's been,'' she told ``Inside Edition.'' ``So painful, I haven't wanted to live. ... I've lived recklessly. I've made a lot of mistakes.''

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