Nearly 30 years later, Monica Lewinsky has emotionally revisited the Bill Clinton scandal, revealing she still lives in fear of its consequences.
In a candid conversation with actress Jameela Jamil, Lewinsky recounts the trauma, public humiliation and survival of one of the most notorious scandals in modern American history.
Jamil asked Lewinsky how she was doing after years of relentless public scrutiny.
Monica Lewinsky says Bill Clinton ‘got away with more times than I did’ after White House scandal
Monica Lewinsky talks about surviving public humiliation in Bill Clinton affair.
(Getty Images)
“How do you feel right now? Where are you now that your life, your identity, and especially your appearance have been torn apart?” Jamil asked during a guest appearance on the “Getting Back to Life with Monica Lewinsky” podcast.
Lewinsky said she has become more comfortable with herself, despite lingering trauma from her past.
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“I think I feel more confident in myself as a person… I feel like every time I’m able to be more of myself in the world and let myself see that this is what I’ve been given, I think I’m freeing myself from past trauma,” Lewinsky said.
Jamil noted that when the Clinton scandal broke in the late 1990s, Lewinsky had no way to fight back or defend herself.
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Monica Lewinsky gets emotional as she talks about how the Clinton scandal affects her life today, revealing the ongoing fear surrounding the life she has carefully rebuilt.
“You didn’t have any outlet back then to control your narrative. Like now, you actually had a place where you could come up with an immediate rebuttal,” Jamil said.
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Lewinsky agreed, but admitted that fear still prevented her from fully using her voice.
“Yeah. But I wasn’t always… I still live in a lot of fear… As crazy as this may sound, it’s almost like an earthquake is going to happen and everything that I’ve built over the past 11 years – gosh, it makes me emotional – is going to be taken away again and I’m going to somehow find myself without purpose or, you know, no income,” Lewinsky said.
A photo of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky meeting President Bill Clinton at a White House event was submitted as evidence in the Starr investigation document and released by the House Judiciary Committee on September 21, 1998.
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Lewinsky, then a White House intern, had an affair with then-President Bill Clinton nearly three decades ago while he was in office. Clinton later faced impeachment proceedings in December 1998, while Lewinsky became a target of global ridicule and humiliation.
Now, Lewinsky added, surviving the past remains an ongoing struggle.
On the day after Thanksgiving in 1998, then-President Bill Clinton answered 81 questions in the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry.
“I think … it’s just trying to capture the present situation as opposed to the past situation, right? But, you know, I know you’ve been through ‘past stuff’ in your own way, and I know you’ve done this as well … you said you were suicidal,” Lewinsky told Jamil.
Jameel described the devastating impact of mass public shaming, warning that the global backlash could be life-threatening.
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“A series of events around the world led me to have suicidal thoughts. It was really serious… and for a while, everything was taken away from me. Not on a large scale – when it happened to me, it was global – but not on the scale of what happens to you,” Jameel said.
In recent years, Lewinsky has re-emerged as an anti-bullying advocate and public speaker, often discussing the lasting consequences of public shaming and how the scandal continues to impact her life today.
Original source of the article: Monica Lewinsky breaks down in emotional confession about Clinton scandal: ‘I still live in a lot of fear’
