Chris Huhne apologised to friends and family for his conduct as he faced up to a jail term.
In an interview conducted hours before he was handed an eight-month prison sentence, the former Cabinet Minister told The Guardian he felt "awful" for having dragged people through the ordeal.
He said: "I am sorry. I want to say that to family, to friends, to constituents and to colleagues, and more broadly to everybody who cares passionately about the causes I care about, including saving the planet for our children and our grandchildren."
Huhne insisted he was not a bully after his ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, argued she had been coerced into taking his speeding points.
And, asked why he had done it, he added: "It is just too easy to rationalise, at the beginning. You think this is just a ridiculously small misjudgment to destroy your career, and you just hope that something will turn up to stop the consequences, and it does not."
In another interview with Channel 4 News, Huhne admitted he had inflicted "a lot of hurt on my family and my ex-wife".