There's a simple explanation behind the nearly nude self-portrait Geraldo Rivera shared with the world over the weekend, and it isn't vanity. No, the TV personality admitted that he'd been doing tequila shots by himself that night and tweeted out the risque shot after he had drunkenly convinced himself he looked great for his age.

As Rivera explained to New York radio station 95.5 FM, he indulged in a "couple of drinks" after wrapping up work on Saturday night. He was "wired," and everyone else was asleep, so he apparently opted to celebrate National Tequila Day early.

"And I never do tequila when I'm alone, but I had this new bottle that someone had given me," Rivera said. "The second one, my fate was sealed."

And "at 2:30 in the morning, you're not thinking exactly logically" anyway, Rivera said with a laugh.

He'd actually taken the picture, which shows Rivera wearing nothing but a loosely draped towel and a pair of glasses, on Saturday morning. Later that night, sharing the snapshot on Twitter with the caption, "70 is the new 50," didn't seem like such a bad idea.

"I said, 'Dammit, I like that picture.' I had learned how to use Twitter a couple of weeks ago," he said, "and there I was."

In the morning, it was his 18-year-old daughter who first asked him to immediately take down the photo.

"It seemed like a great idea at the time," he said. "I figured they'd cut me some slack because I am so old. ... I took it down the next day after I heard from Fox."

Rivera seems to have learned a lesson, as he tweeted on Sunday: "Note to self: no tweeting after 1am."