( CNN ) -- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was a binge drinker who had a pornography habit or fetish in the 1980s , then changed radically when he stopped drinking alcohol , his former girlfriend told CNN on Monday . Lillian McEwen , who dated Thomas for several years before he was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1991 , provided CNN 's `` Larry King Live '' program with a harsh depiction of Thomas . She said when they first met , he might have been a `` raving alcoholic '' who used pornography to help fulfill sexual fantasies , but then gave up drinking and transformed into an angry , obsessive man who bullied his son . King said during the program that Thomas ' office declined offers to comment on the topics of the interview . Thomas almost had his Supreme Court nomination derailed when another woman , Anita Hill , accused him of sexual harassment when they worked together in the 1980s at the U.S. Department of Education and then the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission . During his Senate confirmation hearing , Thomas angrily denied any improper behavior involving Hill , calling the allegations a form of lynching . McEwen , a former prosecutor and administrative law judge who has written her own memoir and is seeking a publisher , said she believed Hill 's account of sexually suggestive statements by Thomas because of his use of pornography . `` I suppose I would call it a fetish or a hobby , '' she said of Thomas . `` It was something that was very important to him , something that he talked about . '' She said the pornography bored her and she would n't watch pornographic videos with him , but she also said she enabled his fantasies tied to the pornography `` because we had a sexual relationship . '' `` I did n't disapprove of it . I just did n't care , '' McEwen said . According to McEwen , Thomas underwent a major personality change when he gave up alcohol that eventually caused her to leave the relationship . `` Clarence became not the person I knew when I first met him , '' she said , adding that he `` drank to excess '' when they first met and might have been a `` raving alcoholic '' at that time . When he gave up alcohol , she said , he became `` angry , short-tempered , asexual '' and obsessive with ambition and what she called `` weird things , '' such as long runs in the dark before dawn . Asked if she believed back then he was qualified to reach his goal of being a Supreme Court justice , McEwen said it was a difficult question and cited `` instability , '' a `` lack of intellectual curiosity , '' and trouble with concentrating when reading for a long time as issues about Thomas that would make it difficult to do the job . Thomas '' went backwards '' during the time she knew him and became a bully to his son , McEwen said , and she added that she once turned him down when Thomas asked if he and his son could move in with her . Eventually , McEwen said , `` it was time for me to go . '' Thomas is one of the most conservative justices on the nine-member Supreme Court , and is known for rarely if ever asking questions during hearings . To McEwen , his conservative rulings amount to a kind of revenge fueled by anger against liberals who he believes turned against him . `` His enemies are people who are active in civil rights , professors who have criticized him and anybody who disagrees with the conservative friends that he has such as Rush Limbaugh , '' she said . McEwen had never spoken publicly about her relationship with Thomas until the recent revelation that Thomas ' wife , conservative activist Virginia Thomas , left a voicemail for Anita Hill asking her to apologize for her 1991 testimony at the confirmation hearing . According to McEwen , she was `` tricked '' by a Washington Post reporter into commenting on the Virginia Thomas phone call to Hill and decided is was time to come forward with her story . Watch Larry King Live Monday through Sunday 9pm ET . For the latest from Larry King Live click here .
Lillian Thomas tells CNN 's ` ` Larry King Live '' about their marriage in the 1980s . Thomas married after he stopped drinking alcohol , she says . She says Thomas ' office declined to comment on the interview with McEwen .