Katie Couric Boosted Her Career With Affairs

In the unauthorized biography Katie: The Real Story, author Edward Klein describes a calculation vixen hidden behind Katie's perky TV personality - and he discussed the book's steamiest details with Star! "Yes, it can be said that Katie tried to sleep her way to the top," Klein tells Star. "Both men helped her achieve some degree of professional success."

And both relationships were suspiciously short-lived, says Klein: "Any emotional attachment on Katie's part did not appear to be particularly strong, since she left both of them and moved on!"

Katie is still doing her own thing when it comes to romance. Since October 2006, she's been very publicly linked to entrepreneur and tri-athlete Brooks Perlin. "She's out to prove that she's sill sexy, vital, and desirable in the eyes of this young jock," says Klein. Yet by showing off her new boy toy, he adds, the Katie may be risking the prestigious job she worked so hard to get.

After landing her first TV news job at CNN's Atlanta headquarters, Klein claims that Katie plunged into a steamy affair with a married, considerably older CNN exec. Soon, says the author, they were the talk of the newsroom - and were even spotted "making out."

Klein writes that the exec saved her from getting fired several times. But even though Katie ditched the CNN honcho when she accepted a job at an NBC affiliate in Miami in the mid-1980's, his marriage soon ended.

Once in Miami, Klein claims, Katie quickly lined up another high-profile lover, a 12-years-older, married, dad-of-two who was a media spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department. "[That] position put him in the know and made him a source par excellence for an ambitious young journalist like Katie," writes Klein. The two dated until Katie left Miami for Washington D.C. and took a job at anther NBC affiliate, according to the author.

Although Katie's rep denies the claims, Klein says, "in effect, Katie was responsible for braking up two marriages." Her Miami lover and his wife "were on the rocks when she showed up, he notes, "so I wouldn't say she's the home wrecker when it came to him. But by leaving both men, one after the other, it gives the appearance that her motivations weren't entirely romantic."

Many years later, it was Katie who got dumped by Hollywood mogul Tom Werner. She then consoled herself with a new guy - 17 years younger Brooks! "She's become a cougar," says Klein. In his book, Klein notes that Perlin "gets along well" with Katie's daughter, Ellie and Carrie, by her late husband Jay Monahan. But the author says that the eyebrow-raising romance could have serious career fallout. "Katie's undermining [what] her CBS bosses would like viewers to believe about her - that she's an authority on news." Klein tells Star. "It's very hard for her to come across as the next Walter Cronkite when her personal life with Brooks keeps grabbing the headlines!"

Source:  The Bosh