Clinton was ‘besieged by 25 women a day’ even before he became US President

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Bill Clinton was already a huge hit with the ladies during his initial bid for governorship in his home state of Arkansas in the 1970s before he became US President, claims his former staffers in a TV documentary.

Former senior aides said Clinton was besieged by 25 women a day who flocked to see him before he even got to the White House.

They said that women were 'literally mesmerized' and swarmed around him 'like flies to honey'.

His appeal only grew by the time he became president - during which time he admitted he had been forced to ‘shut down my body’ to avoid multiple indiscretions.

The disclosures were made in the forthcoming PBS documentary Clinton in which his former staffers speak for the first time about their sense of betrayal over his affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1998, the Daily Mail reported.

Long before he got to the White House, Clinton’s sexual appetite was causing problems.

According to the documentary, his political team realised it was a stumbling block during his failed run for Congress in 1974 in his home state of Arkansas.

“You got to understand that at one time there was at least 25 women per day coming through there trying to find him and I’d tell them he was out on the road. Lord it was bad. Bad, bad bad, bad bad,” said Campaign manager Paul Fray.

Marla Crider, who worked with Clinton in Arkansas and had an affair with him, describes women as being ‘literally mesmerised’.

“It was like flies to honey. He needed that, he needed that kind of adoration. I don’t think there was any question that Hillary was hurt whether it was me, or anyone else,” she revealed.

Among those interviewed is Betsey Wright, Clinton’s trusted political aide, who made a crucial intervention in his career in 1987 the day before he was due to announce his run for presidency.

She confronted Clinton with a list of his previous girlfriends who he had to deal with.

“It became clear it was not the time for him to do it. This was not the time,” Wright tells the documentary.

By the time he got to the White House in 1992, however, Clinton appeared to be having even more difficulty controlling himself.

And when Lewinsky arrived as one of his interns, his self-control evaporated completely.

Ken Gormley, a legal expert working in the White House, tells the documentary that there were 'almost these sparks flying between them from the first moment when they saw each other'.

And when the affair became public Wright says that his staffers were deeply upset because he had lied to them and lied ‘to a lot of people’.

The four-hour documentary about former president, set to air next week, will dedicate a full hour to his affair with Lewinsky.