Monica Lewinsky says she still lives in fear following the fallout from her affair with US President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. Photo / Ryan Pfluger, The New York Times
Monica Lewinsky says she still lives in fear following the fallout from her affair with US President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. Photo / Ryan Pfluger, The New York Times
Anti-bullying activist Monica Lewinsky has opened up about the public ostracism she faced after the Clinton scandal, saying she continues to “live in a lot of fear”.
Lewinsky made the comments to British actor Jameela Jamil in a recent emotional episode of her podcast Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, according toFox News.
In 1998, Lewinsky faced intense global ridicule after admitting to a sexual affair with then President Bill Clinton, who she met while working as an unpaid intern at the White House.
Clinton was impeached on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for attempting to conceal the affair.
In the episode, Lewinsky reflected on the personal growth she has experienced in the nearly three decades since the intense public scrutiny she first faced.
“I think I fall in a place where I feel more confident in myself as a person,” she said.
Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office at the White House. Photo / News Limited
“I feel like every time I’m able to be more myself in the world and have it reflected back to me that that’s what’s been received, I think that I shed skin of trauma for myself from the older days.”
Jamil noted that because the scandal unfolded before the age of social media, Lewinsky did not have the opportunity to shape the narrative or offer an “immediate rebuttal”.
Lewinsky said “I still live in a lot of fear”, revealing she was often anxious that an “earthquake” could undo the emotional work she had done in the years since, “and I’ll somehow find myself without purpose or, you know, without an income”.
She said she worries she could be left without purpose or a livelihood.
“I think it’s just trying to hold on to what’s now and not what was.”
Bill Clinton hugs Monica Lewinsky at the Democratic fundraiser in Washington DC, October 23, 1996. Photo / Dirck Halstead, Liaison Agency
Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, which launched early last year, sees Lewinsky interview guests such as Malala Yousafzai and Miley Cyrus on themes of restoring control of one’s narrative.
The podcast also marks an important point in her own long-running effort to reclaim her story, since re-emerging as an anti-bullying advocate in recent years.
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