BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Late-night U.S. CBS TV comic said he married his longtime girlfriend Regina Lasko on March 19 during a courthouse ceremony in Choteau, Mont.

    "I had avoided getting married pretty good for, like, 23 years and I ... secretly felt that men who were married admired me, like I was the last of the real gunslingers," he said during the Late Show taping Monday.

    This is the second marriage for 61-year-old Letterman. He and Regina Lasko, 48, have been dating since 1986. Their 5-year-old son Harry was present at the ceremony. "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,'" Letterman said at the taping, according to a transcript. 

    He said that he almost missed the ceremony because the family's pickup truck was stuck in mud two miles from their house. Letterman was forced to walk back in a howling gale to get the car.

    When he arrived back, his son asked if they were still going into the town. "And I said, 'Yes, we are,' " recounted Letterman, "and he gets very upset because mom had told him if I wasn't back in an hour, the deal was off."

    (Agencies)