Breaking her long silence, Monica lewinsky, the former White House intern whose affair with President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment in 1998, terms it a “consensual” affair, even while maintaining that “my boss took advantage of me”.
Writing in Vanity Fair, lewinsky, now 40, says: “Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position…”
“The Clinton administration, the special prosecutor’s minions, the political operatives on both sides of the aisle, and the media were able to brand me. And that brand stuck, in part because it was imbued with power,” she writes, adding the public humiliation she suffered at the time had permanently altered the direction of her life.
The scandal led to Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice in December 1998. The Senate, however, cleared him of both the charges in February 1999 and Clinton went on to complete his second term in the White House in 2000.
In excerpts posted by Vanity Fair on Tuesday, lewinsky writes: “I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened.” She goes on to say that “it’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress” – a reference to the infamous stained piece of clothing that she preserved after the encounter with Clinton.
lewinsky discloses that in the wake of the media storm and investigations surrounding the affair, she had “suicidal temptations” several times, but clarifies that she never actually attempted suicide. Her mother used to stay by her bed, fearing she would take her life.
The woman who has maintained a low profile for nearly a decade and a half says she turned down lucrative writing offers that would have earned her more than $10 million. That was because she felt it would not be the right thing to do.
In the intervening years, she got her master’s degree in social psychology from the london School of Economics, and attended interviews for a host of jobs. But the potential employers would not pick her because of her “history”, she writes.