The 27-year-old freelance journalist at the centre of rumours linking her to Democratic front-runner John Kerry has denied having an affair with the Massachusetts senator.
Speaking from Nairobi, Kenya, Ms Alexandra Polier said: "I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumours in the press are completely false."
The Democratic candidate, who is married to heiress Teresa Heinz, has also denied the rumours which first appeared on the Drudge Report website last Thursday.
The report was picked up by conservative talk radio but the US mainstream media carried little more than Mr Kerry's denial and did not refer to Ms Polier, who was first named by a British tabloid.
A warning by retired Gen Wesley Clark to reporters that Mr Kerry would "implode" over an intern issue caused panic among Kerry campaign officials until the senator issued a denial. Ms Polier made her statement to the Associated Press in Nairobi, where she is visiting the parents of her fiancé, Mr Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli raised in Kenya. She previously worked as an editorial assistant for the AP in New York.
Ms Polier said: "For the last several days I have seen Internet and tabloid rumours relating to me and Senator John Kerry. Because these stories were false, I assumed the media would ignore them. It seems that efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address them. I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumours in the press are completely false."
She said the allegations had caused pain to her family and asked to be left alone.
Her parents, Terry and Donna Polier, issued a separate statement from their home in Malvedrn, Pennsylvania, saying they had spoken to her and the allegations were "completely false and unsubstantiated". They added: "We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation, and intend on voting for him for president of the US."
Mr Polier had been quoted in the Sun making harsh remarks about Mr Kerry. Mr Kerry's aides said in Wisconsin, where he is fighting a primary election today, they would have no further comment.
Ms Polier also denied to AP over the telephone that she ever worked for Mr Kerry. She and Mr Schwartzman met at Columbia University and arrived in Kenya in October.
Mr Howard Dean, once the front-runner in the Democratic campaign, is set to call it quits as he faces the prospect of yet another primary defeat in Wisconsin today.
As if conceding that Mr Kerry has the nomination wrapped up, Mr Dean declined to aim his usual barbs at the Massachusetts senator as he campaigned in Winsconsin yesterday.