Note the Word ‘Intimate’

From a press release issued by Jodie Fisher:

“I was surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this. That was never my intention. […] Mark and I never had an affair or intimate sexual relationship.”

From which John Biggs concludes:

There was no sexual contact and generally it just looks like they had dinners together when she was “under contract to work at high-level customer and executive summit events” for the company.

I think that’s the wrong conclusion. This repeated use of the phrase “no intimate sexual relationship” sounds to me like it means “we had a sexual relationship but it wasn’t an intimate one”. I have no idea what they mean by that (“no intercourse”?) — but if you look at it that way, the whole saga makes a lot more sense.

★ Monday, 9 August 2010