Michael Phelps Today Show Interview With Matt Lauer

Olympic champion Michael Phelps, 23,  sat down with The Today Show’s Matt Lauer in his first television interview since the photo of him smoking marijuana from a bong hit the net by storm.

Phelps says:

“It was– really, you know, the people I hurt, you know, is my family, clearly. My friends,” he says. “The close people around me. And most importantly, the fans. And– and, you know, I realize that that hurt a lot of people.”

Although he admits it was a big mistake, he insists he and his friends were just celebrating:

“I mean, we were just celebrating, honestly. And– you know, there was probably two or three people there I didn’t know. It was a very small group. Six or seven people probably total in the whole house. Like nothing major. You know, not like a giant college house party. It was nothing like that. It was just a small group and we were just sitting around and celebrating.”

See the video above.