Metro

Client 9 now stupid cupid

There’s one four-letter word that makes Eliot Spitzer very uncomfortable: L-O-V-E.

A slightly squirmy Spitzer drifted into deeply personal territory on the latest stop of his redemption tour, telling an interviewer about the meaning of love and his mindset with his wife after 25 years of marriage.

The cringe-inducing comments from the disgraced former governor came in an interview with BigThink.com, which was posted online yesterday, in response to the question, “What is love?”

“It’s one of these feelings that you sense when you meet somebody and there is a response that is different and is unique and is palpable. And it then changes over time,” Spitzer, who resigned the governor’s seat in 2008 after he was snared as a client of a high-priced call girl ring that included Ashley Dupre, said in the wide-ranging interview.

Seeming clearly uneasy, the man known as Client 9 went on, “In other words, the sort of exaltation of first meeting and falling in love is, I think everybody would admit, is different than the feelings that you might have after 25 years.”

He laughed and added, “When my wife is watching this, she may say, ‘What are you talking about?’ But it is.”

He went on, “After 25 years, it becomes almost a dependence. And a sense of knowing somebody so well that you have merged as personalities, and know each other’s thoughts and there’s a comfort that is there, which is part of it, and equally important.”

Spitzer’s wife, Silda, has stuck by his side since the scandal, and several people close to the couple say they’ve worked on repairing their union.

The sources say she believes he was driven out of office unfairly.

The bizarre, soul-baring interview included Spitzer being asked what advice he’d give other famous philanderers such as Tiger Woods. Spitzer said he has looked “within” and that “in moments like this, of course, you find where your friends really are and you realize who you can depend on and who is there and who tries to help.”

As for how he’d advise other pols to avoid similar scandals like his own?

“When you know something’s stupid, don’t do it,” he said. “It’s really — there often isn’t a lot of subtly [sic] to the things that cause trouble. And it’s not a lack of capacity to distinguish between right and wrong.

“It’s the failure to exercise that judgment at the particular moment, whether out of hubris, out of a sense of entitlement, out of a sense of adrenaline, whatever it may be. But, you know, it’s stupidity that brings people down.”

Spitzer also decided to clarify a bit of urban legend that swirled around his infamous scandal — insisting the black socks he supposedly liked to keep on during the act are myth, not fact.

He was asked point-blank, was it true about the socks?

“No,” he replied simply.

Asked if he plans to return to public office, he demurred, saying the columns he’s written for Slate.com and opinion pieces he’s penned on the economy and current political events are “not part of some scheduled return to anything, but I’ve enjoyed it.”

maggie.haberman@nypost.com