NEW YORK – The husband of the prison worker charged with helping two killers escape said she “got in over her head and didn’t know how to get out” of their plan to break out of maximum security facility in northeast New York State.

Lyle Mitchell said on the NBC Today Show Tuesday he knew nothing of the elaborate escape plot that included cutting holes in the convicts’ cells, breaking through a brick wall and sawing a hatch in a steam pipe that led to their getting outside the prison walls on June 6.

He said his wife regrets her part in the escape plan but that she told him she did not have sex with either of the convicted murderers. He said he believes her, even though authorities have reported otherwise.

The massive manhunt to capture escapees Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35, has thus far proved unsuccessful, though evidence of their DNA found in a cabin near the prison last weekend has authorities optimistic they will find them soon. They have been on the lam for 18 days.

Mitchell’s wife, Joyce Mitchell, 51, has been charged with providing hacksaw blades, chisels and screwdriver bits to help in the breakout. She has pleaded not guilty and is being held in jail in lieu of $100,000 cash bail.

Investigators have said the plan included her meeting Matt and Sweat outside the prison the night of the escape, driving them to an undisclosed location and fleeing with them in a Bonnie-and Clyde-type adventure. But she had a change of heart and checked herself into a hospital for treatment of chest pains caused by anxiety.

Mitchell said his wife admitted “a little affection” for fugitive Matt and that she said he tried to kiss her a few times but nothing more happened at the prison tailoring shop where she supervised the work of both convicts at various times.

“She swore on her son’s life that definitely, ‘Never have I ever had sex’ (with Matt or Sweat),” Mitchell told Matt Lauer on the NBC Today show.

Mitchell said he first learned of his wife’s role in the escape plot a few days after the escape when an investigator told him at the police station, “Mr. Mitchell, your wife is more involved than she’s letting on.’”

Mitchell said his wife then told him she was aware of the convicts’ escape plan but when it came down to her part in the actual escape, “that’s when she said something was wrong. She said she was in too deep; she didn’t know how to get out of it.” He said she said, “I got in over my head.”

Mitchell said he was in a state of “disbelief, shock” when his wife told him of her involvement. He said he still loves his wife but he is also mad about what she did. “How could she do this?” he asked. “How could she do this to our kids?”

In answer to a question from Lauer if he stood by his wife, Mitchell said: “As of right now, I don’t know what to think. I do not know. “

Mitchell said his wife of 14 years has told investigators everything she knows about the convicted killers’ escape plans. He said she told him, “I’m trying to make this right. I know what I did was wrong. I need to make this right.”