Monica Lewinsky has once again revisited the scandal that shaped her early adulthood, stating that former President Bill Clinton should have either resigned or found a way to handle the fallout without sacrificing her reputation.
Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast in an episode released Tuesday, Lewinsky shared her perspective on how the White House and the press mishandled the situation when their affair was exposed in the late 1990s.
“I think that the right way to handle a situation like that would have been to probably say it was nobody’s business and to resign,” Lewinsky, now 51, told host Alex Cooper.
She added, “Or to find a way of staying in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person who was just starting out in the world under the bus.”
Lewinsky acknowledged the complexity of the situation, particularly given Clinton’s role as leader of the country at the time.
“And at the same time, I’m hearing myself say that, and it’s like, OK, we’re also talking about the most powerful office in the world. I don’t want to be naive either,” she admitted.
Lewinsky was a 22-year-old White House intern when her relationship with Clinton took place between 1995 and 1996. When news of the affair broke in 1998, it led to one of the most dramatic political scandals in modern American history. Clinton initially denied the relationship, famously stating, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” However, he later admitted to the affair.
The revelation ignited a nationwide debate over presidential ethics, morality, and abuse of power. Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives but ultimately acquitted by the Senate, allowing him to serve out his second term. Meanwhile, Lewinsky was left to endure relentless public scrutiny.
On the podcast, Lewinsky reflected on the personal toll the scandal took on her life and the impact it had on women of her generation.
“It’s really complicated, because you are talking about issues and situations where so many people are impacted,” she said.
Looking back, she admitted that she still struggles to find the right balance in evaluating what should have been done.
“Maybe this is a reflection of my generation or my age, but I don’t know where the right balance is—because there was damage no matter what,” Lewinsky explained.
However, she emphasized that the real harm was not just to her own life but to a generation of women who witnessed the media’s treatment of a young woman caught in a scandal with one of the most powerful men in the world.
“I think there was so much collateral damage for women of my generation to watch a young woman be pilloried on the world stage, to be torn apart for my sexuality, for my mistakes, for my everything,” she said.
She described the overwhelming scrutiny and relentless criticism she faced as a “global humiliation.”
“I was lucky enough to hold onto a strand of my true self, but I lost my future,” she admitted.
Despite the lasting impact of the scandal, Lewinsky expressed gratitude for how her life has evolved in recent years.
“I’m so grateful for how my life has changed in the last 10 years,” she said. “But that certainly was not a given.”
Over the past decade, Lewinsky has reinvented herself as an activist, writer, and public speaker, focusing on issues like cyberbullying and public shaming—topics she knows about firsthand. Her TED Talk, The Price of Shame, has been widely praised, and she has worked to reshape the narrative surrounding her past.
Now, she is promoting her new podcast, Reclaiming, which aims to explore redemption, resilience, and rewriting one’s personal story after a public downfall.
More than two decades after the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, the conversation surrounding power dynamics, workplace misconduct, and public shaming has shifted dramatically, especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
While Clinton has largely avoided deep reflection on the scandal, Lewinsky continues to push for more honest conversations about what happened and the damage it caused—not just to her, but to public perception of women’s agency and accountability in such situations.
By speaking out, Lewinsky is reclaiming her own story, ensuring that her legacy is no longer just a footnote in a president’s scandal but a powerful testament to resilience in the face of global humiliation.
