Bill Clinton Interview: Calls Wife Hillary ‘Rock’ Of His Life

RTR4P2T0 — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton attends the Clinton Global Initiative's 2015 Winter Meeting in New York Feb. 10, 2015. He spoke about wife Hillary in a recent CNN interview. Reuters/Brendan McDermid

In a rare occcurrence for Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president talked about his relationship with wife Hillary in an interview with CNN. He called his wife the "rock” of the family and the most important woman in his life.

It's not very common for Clinton to talk about his wife. Neither Bill nor Hillary likes to talk about their personal life in public. This was a rare occasion when he talked about the person he would "trust with his life."

Clinton told CNN that his wife, now running for president herself, had helped him when he was going through some of the most difficult times of his life. He talked about being “plagued with self-doubt” during a trying time in his career when he was in his late 20s.

Clinton talked about being the youngest former governor in U.S. history. He said that he had been “killed in the Reagan landslide.” "People I had appointed to office would walk across the street, they were so afraid of the new regime in Arkansas, and would not shake hands with me,” Clinton told CNN. “My career prospects were not particularly bright.”

Clinton said that his wife had confidence in him even in those difficult times. She told him that he would turn it around as she believed in his capabilities.

The Clintons are known to be an extremely close couple even though they follow significantly different work schedules. Hillary was asked at an event in May if she was aware where her husband was. She said that she talked to him a lot on the phone.

The couple went through the most difficult period in their relationship during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Hillary talked about her husband’s highly publicized affair with the White House intern in the first memoir, “Living History.” She said that the most difficult decision in her life was to stay married to her husband.

The former U.S. president is also quite encouraging about his wife’s career prospects. He once told Hillary she should dump him to concentrate on her political career. Hillary laughed about it. Bill said Hillary is the “most gifted person” he has ever met.