Monica Lewinsky says Bill Clinton ‘escaped a lot more than I did’ after White House scandal

Monica Lewinsky contemplated suicide due to media scrutiny surrounding her affair with the former president

Monica Lewinsky reflected on the unwanted fame she received after her affair with former President Bill Clinton was unearthed.

Nearly three decades ago, Lewinsky, a former White House intern, had an affair with the former president while he was in office. Clinton subsequently had an impeachment trial that came about in December 1998.

Lewinsky contemplated suicide due to the media scrutiny, and told The Times that “the public humiliation was excruciating; life was almost unbearable.”

Monica Lewinsky admitted life was “almost unbearable” after the Bill Clinton scandal was exposed. (Gilbert Flores)

While her personal fallout almost cost her life, Lewinsky believed Clinton “escaped” from overwhelming criticism more easily than she did.

“I haven’t spoken to him in almost 30 years and I don’t know what his internal landscape is,” she said. “I think he escaped a lot more than I did.”

Clinton was 49 at the time of the incident, while Lewinsky was 22.

Lewinsky maintained that their relationship was consensual, however “this was a gross abuse of power. Full stop.”

She added, “That doesn’t mean I didn’t make mistakes, that I didn’t make wrong choices, that my behavior didn’t hurt other people. But at the heart of it was a gross abuse of power.”

A photograph showing former White House intern Monica Lewinsky meeting President Bill Clinton at a White House function submitted as evidence in documents by the Starr investigation and released by the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 21, 1998. (Getty Images)

Following the scandal, Clinton was acquitted. After a few public appearances in an attempt to reinvent herself, Lewinsky disappeared from the spotlight in the mid-2000s.

Lewinsky reclaimed some of the narrative surrounding her story and served as a producer on the FX series, “Impeachment: American Crime Story.”

In 2018, the former president bristled at questions over whether he should have resigned over his sexual relationship with Lewinsky and whether the #MeToo movement has changed his perspective.

“I dealt with it 20 years ago, plus,” said Clinton on NBC’s “Today Show.” “And the American people, two-thirds of them stayed with me. And I’ve tried to do a good job since then, and with my life and with my work. That’s all I have to say.”

A photograph showing former White House intern Monica Lewinsky meeting President Bill Clinton at a White House function submitted as evidence in documents by the Starr investigation and released by the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 21, 1998. (Getty Images)

In January 2025, Lewinsky launched her own podcast, “Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky.”

The synopsis of her show states, “Every week, I’ll draw from my own unique experiences (like say, surviving a global scandal at 24 years old), and delve into the personal and often messy ways people find their way back to themselves.”

During a February appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Lewinsky admitted the “right way” for the former president to handle their affair going public would have been to resign.

“I think that the right way to handle a situation like that would have been to probably say it was nobody’s business and to resign,” Lewinsky told host Alex Cooper. “Or to find a way of staying in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person who is just starting out in the world under the bus.”

She added, “At the same time, I hear myself say that, and it’s like, ‘Okay, but we’re also talking about the most powerful office in the world.’ I don’t want to be naive either.”

President Clinton denied sexual relations with Lewinsky after their affair was publicized.  (Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News via Getty)

Lewinsky also reflected on the White House response, including when Clinton denied the affair by saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Cooper asked Lewinsky to reconcile what people were saying about their relationship, and what she knew to be true.

“It was gaslighting,” she said. “I think that was what I experienced on a pretty large scale. It was devastating.”

Lewinsky also said that while she felt Clinton’s behavior was worse, she still made her own mistakes.

“Let’s recognize that while there were so many ways that Bill’s behavior was more reprehensible than mine, I did make mistakes,” she said.