Monica Lewinsky has opened up on her short-lived love affair with President Bill Clinton, and while the former White House intern said she has moved on from their forbidden dalliance, she still believes Clinton should feel the need to apologize.
Just 22 at the time, Lewinsky had a sexual relationship with Clinton from 1995 until 1997. Shortly thereafter, friend Linda Tripp, who Lewinsky had confided in, released the details of their affair to the public.
Lewinsky’s story is the centerpiece of FX’s “American Crime Story,” and she appeared on NBC’s “Today” to discuss the series and her feeling today about the relationship.
“There was a long period, before my life changed in the last six or seven years, where I felt a lot in terms of there not being this resolution,” Lewinsky said. “I’m very grateful that I don’t have that feeling anymore. I don’t need it.”
“He should want to apologize in the same way I want to apologize any chance I get to people my actions have hurt,” she continued.
Lewinsky is listed as a producer on the new series and shared her thoughts about that.
“I’ve really worn two hats in this project, as a producer, I’m very proud of the project. But as a subject, I’m nervous,” she explained. “I’m nervous for people to see some of the worst moments of my life and a lot of behavior that I regret. If you remember your 20s, not that long ago, it’s pretty cringeworthy.”
She did say there’s a lot of “emotional truth” on display.
“It is a dramatization, but there is an enormous amount of emotional truth, and I think that’s what was really important,” she said. “I think a lot of people know about this story, but people are going to be very surprised when they watch it, at things they didn’t know happened.”
When anchor Savannah Guthrie asked Lewinsky if she would want Bill Clinton to see this series, she replied, “I don’t even know how to really answer that.”
“I do not recommend watching your early 20s be dramatized on TV,” Lewinsky added. “Especially in this instance where the truth really was stranger than fiction — moments where I just thought, ‘Don’t smile back. Don’t talk to her. Don’t confess. Don’t do this, don’t do that. Don’t make bad decisions.’ I think that that was really hard to see.”
She told Guthrie that had the scandal occurred today, with social media, people might have been more supportive of her.
“I don’t know that it would be as different as people want to think it would be,” Lewinsky said. “But we are having conversations about power differentials in different ways. It’s not just people in power who have voices. The beauty and the beast of social media is more people can be heard. I might have had a little bit of support.”
Lewinsky admitted in the 2018 A&E docuseries, “The Clinton Affair,” she had thought of suicide when news of the affair first broke.
Monica Lewinsky was ‘suicidal,’ says Bill Clinton urged her to lie under oath, prior to last WH kiss https://t.co/S8bRNpoddy pic.twitter.com/KsoXn8t6ls
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) November 24, 2018
“I remember looking out the window and thinking that the only way to fix this was to kill myself, was to jump out the window. I just — I was mortified and afraid of what this was going to do to my family,” she said.
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Tom@bizpacreview.com
The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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