TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – James E. McGreevey, the first openly gay governor in U.S. history, launched a month-long national book tour on Sept. 12 with a taping of the “Oprah” show.

The show will be broadcast Sept. 19, the day McGreevey’s political memoir, The Confession, hits bookstores.

The interview with Oprah Winfrey marks McGreevey’s first in-depth remarks since his political career imploded Aug. 12, 2004, when he told a national television audience that he was gay and would resign as governor. His political troubles arose after he put an alleged lover on the state payroll as a homeland security adviser, but the man could not get the necessary security clearance because he is an Israeli citizen.

The book tour, arranged by publisher Harper Collins, will take McGreevey from New York to Los Angeles, including stops in more than a dozen cities and book stores along the way. The day after talking with Oprah, the 49-year-old McGreevey was scheduled to appear on the “Today Show,” “The View” and “Hannity & Colmes” on FOX News.

An appearance on “The David Letterman Show” is also planned.

McGreevey is scheduled to make several appearances in New Jersey. He’ll attend a book reception hosted by Garden State Equality, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, on Sept. 19 in Woodbridge and has four other N.J. book store appearances on his schedule: at Barnes & Noble stores in Moorestown and Edison on Sept. 23; Watchung Booksellers in Montclair and Here’s the Story in Union on Sept. 24.

None of the interviews or appearances are expected to make a bigger splash than the first one: an hour-long sit-down with one of the most powerful women in America, whose nationally televised show is watched by millions.

McGreevey’s partner, Australian financial adviser Mark O’Donnell, will also be on the show, the only one of the former governor’s interviews in which the 42-year-old O’Donnell plans to take part.

Though McGreevey was courted by all the major television news and entertainment programs, friends say he chose Winfrey to kick off the book because of her sense of faith and spirituality and because the hour-long format of her show allows for an in-depth profile. Some segments of the show were filmed previously in New Jersey, friends say.

McGreevey is also said to be a big fan of Oprah’s education and anti-poverty work, two issues the former governor is devoting more time to in his post-political life.

Lori Kennedy, the wife of Rahway Mayor Jim Kennedy and a friend of McGreevey’s for 20 years, is among the dozen or so people who will be accompanying McGreevey and O’Donnell to the Oprah taping.

“The producers interviewed me for the show, and my husband as well,” she said. “The feeling I got is they really want to see how his [McGreevey’s] life has changed, how he emerged from [being] one person, it seemed, into [being] another person. He was one way when we first met him, then there was a lot of stress, and now he is better than he ever was.”

State Sen. Ray Lesniak, a close friend of the former governor’s who also was interviewed in advance of the program, said Oprah’s people were interested in how McGreevey is now compared with how he was as governor.

“They are two different people,” Lesniak said. “The first person was very guarded and very concerned about how he was perceived. He was driven to achieve and was somewhat uncomfortable.

“The McGreevey I know now has accepted who he is and has shared that with the rest of the world,” he said. “He is comfortable with himself and concerned about being authentic to himself and his beliefs.”

The book also focuses on McGreevey’s transformation – his rise to power, fall from grace and resurrection. It traces his life through two failed marriages, his rapid political rise to the governor’s office and the sudden, public implosion of his political career.

Lesniak calls the book a “totally honest” political memoir in which not all New Jersey politicians are portrayed favorably. Though McGreevey is not out to settle any scores, he did want to be truthful and helpful to others undergoing similar struggles, Lesniak said.

The only other hint of what the book actually says came from limited excerpts released in May, which told the story of a troubled man resorting to anonymous gay trysts at highway rest stops as he wrestled with desires frowned on by his Roman Catholic faith and his family.

Kennedy predicts wide success for the book because it delivers a message of hope.

“The message is, you can change and become better because of it,” she said.

“It is an incredible story and I think a lot of people can benefit from it – not only gay people but people who are hiding a little bit. That’s why he wrote, it’s a story of how he’s changed as a person.”