Monica Lewinsky is ready to reclaim the narrative surrounding her life in the public eye.
The activist just launched her “Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky” podcast and dived into her infamous scandal with former President Bill Clinton.
“I fell in love with D.C. and the White House and the job and the environment and then, very unfortunately, I fell in love with my boss who was married and also the most powerful man in the world,” she said on the February 17 episode. “What followed was an inappropriate relationship that lasted for two years.”Lewinsky, 51, became a household name in 1998 after her affair with Clinton, 77, was made public. The two were intimate while Lewinsky worked at the White House as an intern in the 1990s.
Bill, who is married to Hillary Clinton, was subsequently impeached by the House of Representatives, but he was acquitted of all charges in February 1999 and remained in office until the end of his second presidential term in 2001.
Keep reading to see what Lewinsky revealed about the scandal that continues to make headlines nearly 25 years later:
Monica Lewinsky’s Changing Perspective on Her Bill Clinton Relationship
With the help of time, therapy and perspective, Lewinsky said she has a deeper understanding of what her relationship with Bill really was.
“What I thought was happening in those two years in D.C. and what I thought this relationship was, I’ve come to understand it in different ways,” she explained. “I think that it was something where there were real emotions involved, but I think I believed that there was a future. I think I believed that I mattered a lot more than I did.”
The Cost of Scandal
According to Lewinsky, her family spent more than $1 million in legal fees. At first, she was hopeful some costs would be waived. Once she learned it wasn’t going to happen, she chose to pay off some bills by participating in an authorized biography.
“[It was] another stripping of my sense of justice and the way the world works, and I think I had lost so much of that in the investigation,” she recalled. “There was just a sense of unfairness. I had made mistakes, but it felt like there was one set of rules for most people, and somehow, I had to abide by a different set of rules.”
