Emily Maitlis has claimed she caught former US president Bill Clinton perusing the Kama Sutra.

The new lead presenter of Newsnight noticed the reading material of the former Commander In Chief following a day of interviews.

Maitlis has said that during a press trip she noticed that Clinton was not reading the “cultured” history book she first thought, after she spotted him in a hotel gift shop.

Speaking on The Jonathan Ross Show, Maitlis said that the president was in fact clutching a copy of the ancient erotic text.

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Former US President Bill Clinton was spotted by Maitlis in a gift shop (Brian Lawless/PA)

Describing seeing Clinton in the books section, Maitlis said: “He goes straight to the books and I’m like, ‘of course, the cultured man, he’s gone to read about the Empire’.

“I was looking and he picked up this book and I thought, ‘that doesn’t look like a history book’ and I looked a bit closer.

“I was like, ‘It doesn’t look like it’s got any text, it does look familiar’ – and I realised he’d picked up a copy of the Kama Sutra.

“He was looking at it in the gift shop. I was like, ‘Okay, I think it might be time for a very swift exit’.”

Maitlis also spoke to fellow guests Kiefer Sutherland, Olly Murs and Winnie Harlow about meeting one of Clinton’s successors, Donald Trump.

Before he was president, Trump spoke to Maitlis about his hand-shaking habits and “germaphobia”.

She said: “He came towards me and gave me this macho manly handshake. I was quite surprised because we’d always heard about the germaphobia and how he doesn’t like shaking hands.

“I said, ‘Oh I thought you had germaphobia?’ and he said, ‘no, not with you. I shake hands with you. It’s them that I don’t shake hands with.’

“And I said, ‘oh, the people in your lobby?’ and he’s like ‘yes.”

Maitlis is now the lead presenter of an all-female Newsnight line-up.

The Jonathan Ross Shows airs on ITV on Saturday at 9.15pm.