DAVE: ‘I’LL ALWAYS BE IN HELL’ Torment over sex scandal

David Letterman knew his life would never be the same after his 2009 sex scandal — likening it to “having killed your family in a car crash,” according to a biography released Tuesday.

“I was afraid my family was gone,” the former late-night TV king said, according to Jason Zinoman, the author of “Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night.”

Letterman described spiraling into depression as he was forced to admit on air that he had a series of affairs with female employees, People magazine reported.

Letterman was frank with one of his writers, Steve Young, as they reviewed the monologue in which the star would candidly address his affairs.

“I’m in hell. I will always be in hell until the day after, when I will go to hell,” the “Late Show” host told Young at the time, Zinoman wrote.

Along with Letterman’s family, most of his staffers were unaware he was fooling around behind the scenes, including with his longtime assistant, Stephanie Birkitt (inset), the book claims.

Still, “some suspected as much, and a few said they knew what Letterman was doing,” wrote Zinoman, a New York Times reporter. “There had been rumors among some on staff about Letterman’s flirtations for years.”

After publicly confessing to the sexual shenanigans, Letterman held a meeting with his staffers to try to “cope with and avoid his personal life,” Zinoman said.

No one was allowed to talk about his apology.

“I was looking for a refuge. Whether they knew it or not, [my staffers] were being used to support me,” Letterman said, according to Zinoman. “I didn’t want to go outside. Outside I was scared. Scared as I’ve ever been in my life. The show was endlessly helpful.”

Birkitt’s ex-boyfriend, Robert “Joe” Halderman, tried to shake down Letterman for $2 million after finding her diary, which indicated the two were having an affair.

That led to Letterman’s public apology, in which he admitted he “had sex with women who work for me.”

He had been married several months earlier to longtime girlfriend Regina Lasko. The couple is still together and have one son, Harry, 13.

In 2015, Letterman told the Times that the scandal should have cost him his job.

“Looking at it now, yes, I think they would have had good reason to fire me,” Letterman said. “But at the time, I was largely ignorant as to what, really, I had done.”

Letterman, 69, previously admitted to Rolling Stone magazine that the scandal was “easily the lowest point in my life.” Halderman, a former CBS News producer, eventually pleaded guilty to extortion charges and was sentenced to six months in jail.

Letterman retired in May 2015, after 33 years of hosting his show.

David Letterman I was afraidf my family was gone. .