Monica Lewinsky

Monica Samille Lewinsky(born July 23, 1973)is an American activist. Lewinsky became internationally known in the late 1990s after U.S. PresidentBill Clintonadmitted to having had an affair with her during her days as a White House intern between 1995 and 1997. The affair and its repercussions (which includedClinton's impeachment) became known as theClinton–Lewinsky scandal.
Following the scandal, Lewinsky engaged in a variety of ventures that included designing a line of handbags under her name, serving as an advertising spokesperson for a diet plan, and working as a television personality. She obtained a master's degree in psychology from theLondon School of Economicsin 2006. In 2014, Lewinsky began speaking out as an activist againstcyberbullying.
Lewinsky was born inSan Francisco, California, and grew up in an affluent family inSouthern Californiain theWestsideBrentwoodarea ofLos Angelesand later inBeverly Hills.Her father isBernard Lewinsky, anoncologist, who is the son ofGerman Jewswho emigrated fromGermanyin the 1920s, first moving toEl Salvadorand then finally to the United States when he was 14.Her mother, born Marcia Kay Vilensky, is an author who uses the name Marcia Lewis. In 1996, she wrote a "gossip biography",The Private Lives of the Three Tenors. Lewinsky’s maternal grandfather, Samuel M. Vilensky, was aLithuanian Jew, and her maternal grandmother, Bronia Poleshuk, was born in theBritish ConcessionofTianjin,China, to aRussian Jewishfamily.Lewinsky’s parents divorced in 1988 and each has remarried.
The family attendedSinai Templein Los Angeles and Lewinsky attendedSinai Akiba Academy, the school affiliated with the Temple.For her primary education, she attended theJohn Thomas Dye SchoolinBel-Air.Lewinsky attendedBeverly Hills High Schoolfor three years before transferring toBel Air Prep(later known asPacific High School), graduating in 1991.
Following her high school graduation, Lewinsky attendedSanta Monica Collegewhile working for the drama department at Beverly Hills High School and at a tie shop.In 1992, she and Andy Bleiler, her married former high school drama instructor, began a five-year affair.In 1993, she enrolled atLewis & Clark CollegeinPortland, Oregon, graduating with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1995.In an appearance onLarry King Livein 2000, she revealed that she started an affair with a 40-year-old married man in Los Angeles when she was 18 years old, and that the affair continued while she was attending Lewis & Clark College in the early 1990s; she did not disclose the man's identity.
With the assistance of a family connection, Lewinsky secured an unpaid summerWhite Houseinternship in the office ofWhite House Chief of StaffLeon Panetta. Lewinsky moved to Washington, D.C. and took up the position in July 1995.She moved to a paid posting in theWhite House Office of Legislative Affairsin December 1995.
Lewinsky stated that she had nine sexual encounters with PresidentBill Clintonin theOval Officebetween November 1995 and March 1997. According to her testimony, these encounters involvedoral sexand other sexual acts, but not sexual intercourse.
Clinton had previously been confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct during his time as Governor of Arkansas. Former Arkansas state employeePaula Jonesfiled a civil lawsuit against him alleging that he had sexually harassed her. Lewinsky's name surfaced during the discovery phase of Jones' case, when Jones' lawyers sought to show a pattern of behavior by Clinton which involved inappropriate sexual relationships with other government employees.
In April 1996, Lewinsky's superiors transferred her from the White House to the Pentagon because they felt that she was spending too much time with Clinton.At the Pentagon, she worked as an assistant tochief Pentagon spokesmanKenneth Bacon.In September 1997, after Lewinsky told co-workerLinda Trippabout her relationship with Clinton, Tripp began to secretly record their telephone conversations. Lewinsky left her position at the Pentagon in December 1997,and in January 1998 submitted an affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying any physical relationship with Clinton. Though she attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in that case, Tripp gave the tapes to Independent CounselKenneth Starr, adding to his ongoing investigation into theWhitewater controversy. Starr then broadened his investigation beyond the Arkansas land use deal to include Lewinsky, Clinton, and others for possible perjury and subornation of perjury in the Jones case. Tripp reported the taped conversations to literary agentLucianne Goldberg. She also convinced Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her during their relationship and not to dry clean a blue dress that was stained with Clinton's semen. Under oath, Clinton denied having had "a sexual affair", "sexual relations", or "a sexual relationship" with Lewinsky.
News of the Clinton–Lewinsky relationship broke in January 1998. On January 26, 1998, Clinton stated, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" in a nationally televised White House news conference.The matter instantly occupied the news media, and Lewinsky spent the next weeks hiding from public attention in her mother's residence at theWatergate complex.News of Lewinsky's affair with Andy Bleiler, her former high school drama instructor, also came to light, and he turned over to Starr various souvenirs, photographs, and documents that Lewinsky had sent him and his wife during the time that she was in the White House.
Clinton had also said, "There is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship"which he defended as truthful on August 17, 1998, because of his use of the present tense, arguing "it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is".Starr obtained a blue dress from Lewinsky with Clinton's semen stained on it, as well as testimony from her that the President had inserted a cigar into her vagina. Clinton stated, "I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate",but he denied committing perjury because, according to Clinton, the legal definition of oral sex was not encompassed by "sex"per se.In addition, he relied on the definition of "sexual relations" as proposed by the prosecution and agreed by the defense and by JudgeSusan Webber Wright, who was hearing the Paula Jones case. Clinton claimed that certain acts were performedonhim, notbyhim, and therefore he did not engage in sexual relations. Lewinsky's testimony to the Starr Commission, however, contradicted Clinton's claim of being totally passive in their encounters.
Clinton and Lewinsky were both called before a grand jury. Clinton testified via closed-circuit television, while Lewinsky testified in person. She was grantedtransactional immunityby the Office of the Independent Counsel in exchange for her testimony.
Lewinsky's immunity agreement restricted what she could talk about publicly, but she was able to cooperate withAndrew Mortonin his writing ofMonica's Story, her biography which included her side of the Clinton affair.The book was published in March 1999; it was also excerpted as a cover story inTimemagazine.On March 3, 1999,Barbara Waltersinterviewed Lewinsky on ABC's20/20. The program was watched by 70 million Americans, which ABC said was a record for a news show.Lewinsky made about $500,000 from her participation in the book and another $1 million from international rights to the Walters interview, but was still beset by high legal bills and living costs.
In June 1999,Ms.magazinepublished a series of articles by writer Susan Jane Gilman,sexologistSusie Bright,and author-hostAbiola Abramsarguing from three generations of women whether Lewinsky's behavior had any meaning for feminism. Also in 1999, Lewinsky declined to sign an autograph in an airport, saying, "I'm kind of known for something that's not so great to be known for."She made a cameo appearance as herself in two sketches during the May 8, 1999, episode ofNBC'sSaturday Night Live, a program that had lampooned her relationship with Clinton over the prior 16 months.
In September 1999, Lewinsky began to sell a line of handbags bearing her name,under the company name The Real Monica, Inc.They were sold online as well as atHenri Bendelin New York,Fred Segalin California, and The Cross in London.Lewinsky designed the bags—described byNew Yorkmagazine as "hippie-ish, reversible totes"—and traveled frequently to supervise their manufacture inLouisiana.
At the start of 2000, Lewinsky began appearing in television commercials for the diet companyJenny Craig, Inc.The $1 million endorsement deal, which required Lewinsky to lose 40 or more pounds in six months, gained considerable publicity at the time.Lewinsky said that despite her desire to return to a more private life, she needed the money to pay off legal fees, and she believed in the product.A Jenny Craig spokesperson said of Lewinsky, "She represents a busy active woman of today with a hectic lifestyle. And she has had weight issues and weight struggles for a long time. That represents a lot of women in America."The choice of Lewinsky as a role model proved controversial for Jenny Craig, and some of its private franchises switched to an older advertising campaign.The company stopped running the Lewinsky ads in February 2000, concluded her campaign entirely in April 2000, and paid her only $300,000 of the $1 million contracted for her involvement.
Also at the start of 2000, Lewinsky moved to New York City, lived in theWest Village, and became anA-listguest in theManhattansocial scene.In February 2000, she appeared onMTV'sThe Tom Green Show, in an episode in which the host took her to his parents' home inOttawain search of fabric for her new handbag business. Later in 2000, Lewinsky worked as a correspondent forChannel 5in the UK, on the showMonica's Postcards, reporting on U.S. culture and trends from a variety of locations.
In March 2002, Lewinsky, no longer bound by the terms of her immunity agreement,appeared in theHBOspecial, "Monica in Black and White", part of theAmerica Undercoverseries.In it she answered a studio audience's questions about her life and the Clinton affair.
Lewinsky hosted a reality television dating program,Mr. Personality, onFox Television Networkin 2003,where she advised young women contestants who were picking men hidden by masks.Some Americans tried to organize a boycott of advertisers on the show, to protest Lewinsky's capitalizing on her notoriety.Nevertheless, the show debuted to very high ratings,and Alessandra Stanley wrote inThe New York Times: "after years of trying to cash in on her fame by designing handbags and other self-marketing schemes, Ms. Lewinsky has finally found a fitting niche on television."The same year she appeared as a guest on the programsV Graham Nortonin the UK,High Chaparallin Sweden, andThe ViewandJimmy Kimmel Live!in the U.S.
After Clinton's autobiography,My Life, appeared in 2004, Lewinsky said in an interview with the British tabloidDaily Mail:
By 2005, Lewinsky found that she could not escape the spotlight in the U.S., which made both her professional and personal life difficult.She stopped selling her handbag lineand moved to London to studysocial psychologyat theLondon School of Economics.In December 2006, Lewinsky graduated with aMaster of Sciencedegree.Her thesis was titled, "In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third-Person Effect and Pre-Trial Publicity".For the next decade, she tried to avoid publicity.
Lewinsky did correspond in 2009 with scholarKen Gormley, who was writing an in-depth study of the Clinton scandals. Lewinsky wrote to Gormley that Clinton had lied under oath when asked detailed and specific questions about his relationship with her.In 2013, the items associated with Lewinsky that Bleiler had turned over to Starr were put up for auction by Bleiler's ex-wife, who had come into possession of them.
During her decade out of the public eye, Lewinsky lived in London, Los Angeles, New York, and Portland but, due to her notoriety, had trouble finding employment in the communications and marketing jobs for nonprofit organizations where she had been interviewed.
In May 2014, Lewinsky wrote an essay forVanity Fairmagazine titled "Shame and Survival", wherein she discussed her life and the scandal.She continued to maintain that the relationship was mutual and wrote that while Clinton took advantage of her, it was a consensual relationship.She added: "I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened."However, she said it was now time to "stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past."The magazine later announced her as aVanity Faircontributor, stating she would "contribute to their website on an ongoing basis, on the lookout for relevant topics of interest".
In July 2014, Lewinsky was interviewed in a three-part television special for theNational Geographic Channel, titledThe 90s: The Last Great Decade. The series looked at various events of the 1990s, including the scandal that brought Lewinsky into the national spotlight. This was Lewinsky's first such interview in more than ten years.
In October 2014, she took a public standagainstcyberbullying, calling herself "patient zero" of online harassment.Speaking at aForbesmagazine "30 Under 30" summit about her experiences in the aftermath of the scandal, she said, "Having survived myself, what I want to do now is help other victims of the shame game survive, too."She said she was influenced by reading about thesuicide of Tyler Clementi, aRutgers Universityfreshman, involving cyberbullyingand joinedTwitterto facilitate her efforts.In March 2015, Lewinsky continued to speak out publicly against cyberbullying,delivering aTED talkcalling for a more compassionate Internet.In June 2015, she became an ambassador and strategic advisor for anti-bullying organizationBystander Revolution.The same month, she gave an anti-cyberbullying speech at theCannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.In September 2015, Lewinsky was interviewed byAmy RobachonGood Morning America, about Bystander Revolution's Month of Action campaign for National Bullying Prevention Month.Lewinsky wrote the forewordto an October 2017 book by Sue Scheff and Melissa Schorr,Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate.
In October 2017, Lewinsky tweeted the#MeToo hashtagto indicate that she was a victim of sexual harassment or sexual assault, but did not provide details.She wrote an essay in the March 2018 issue ofVanity Fairin which she did not directly explain why she used the #MeToo hashtag in October. She did write that looking back at her relationship with Bill Clinton, although it was consensual, because he was 27 years older than she and in a position with a lot more power than she had, in her opinion the relationship constituted an "abuse of power" on Clinton's part. She added that she had been diagnosed withpost-traumatic stress disorderdue to what she had experienced after the relationship was disclosed.In May 2018, Lewinsky was disinvited from an event hosted byTown & Countrywhen Bill Clinton accepted an invitation to the event.
In September 2018, Lewinsky spoke at a conference inJerusalem. Following her speech, she sat for a Q&A session with the host, journalistYonit Levi. The first question Levi asked was whether Lewinsky thinks that Clinton owes her a private apology. Lewinsky refused to answer the question, and walked off the stage. She later tweeted that the question was posed in a pre-event meeting with Levi, and Lewinsky told her that such a question was off limits. A spokesman for theIsrael Television News Company, which hosted the conference and is Levi's employer, responded that Levi had kept all the agreements she made with Lewinsky and honored her requests.
In 2019, she was interviewed byJohn Oliveron his HBO showLast Week Tonight with John Oliver, where they discussed the importance of solving the problem ofpublic shamingand how her situation may have been different if social media had existed at the time thatthe scandalbroke in the late 1990s.More recently, she started Alt Ending Productions with a first look deal at 20th Television.
On August 6, 2019, it was announced that the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal would be the focus of the third season of the television seriesAmerican Crime Storywith the titleImpeachment. The season began production in October 2020.Lewinsky was a co-producer.It consists of 10 episodes and premiered on September 7, 2021.The season portrays the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal and is based on the bookA Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a PresidentbyJeffrey Toobin. The 28-year-old actressBeanie Feldsteinplays Monica Lewinsky. In discussing the series and her observations on social media and cancel culture today in an interview withKara Swisherfor the New York Times Opinion podcastSway,Lewinsky noted that:
In October 2021 she executively produced an HBO documentary15 Minutes of Shame, directed byMax Joseph, which focused on public shaming,online shaming, andostracism.