Decades After

Monica Lewinsky breaks decade of silence
over affair with Bill Clinton: 'It's time to
burn the beret and bury the blue dress'
The White House intern, whose
affair with Clinton led to the former
President's impeachment in 1998, has
written a tell-all magazine column
By JENN SELBY
Tuesday 06 May 2014
After a decade of silence over the affair
with Bill Clinton that led to his eventual
impeachment in 1998, Monica Lewinsky
has finally decided to address the
dramatic turn of events in a tell-all
magazine column for Vanity Fair .
Now 40, Lewinsky said “it’s time to burn
the beret and bury the blue dress” and
vowed to stop “tiptoeing” around her
past.
“I am determined to have a different
ending to my story,” she writes. “I've
decided, finally, to stick my head above
the parapet so that I can take back my
narrative and give a purpose to my past.
(What this will cost me, I will soon find
out.)”
Lewinski stated that the affair with the
former US President , which happened
when she was a 22-year-old White House
intern, occurred between two consenting
adults. However, she admitted she
“deeply” regretted the relationship.
“Sure, my boss took advantage of me,”
she continued, “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."
“I, myself, deeply regret what happened
between me and President Clinton,” she
added. “Let me say it again: I. Myself.
Deeply. Regret. What. Happened.”
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Lewinski went on to name Tyler Clementi,
the 18-year-old Rutgers student who was
bullied to death for being gay , as the
inspiration behind her decision to speak
out after so many years, citing her own
feelings of suicide after news of Clinton’s
infidelity hit the media.
Her mother, she says, was particularly
harrowed by Clementi’s death.
“She was reliving 1998, when she
wouldn't let me out of her sight.
“She was replaying those weeks when she
stayed by my bed, night after night,
because I, too, was suicidal. The shame,
the scorn, and the fear that had been
thrown at her daughter left her afraid that
I would take my own life – a fear that I
would be literally humiliated to death.”
But, in the wake of Clementi’s death, her
“own suffering took on a different
meaning,” she said.
“Perhaps by sharing my story, I reasoned,
I might be able to help others in their
darkest moments of humiliation. The
question became: How do I find and give
a purpose to my past?”
Her main ambition for the future, she
concluded, is to use her famous name to
“get involved with efforts on behalf of
victims of online humiliation and
harassment and to start speaking on this
topic in public forums."
Clinton was being investigated by
Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel,
on a number of perjury and obstruction
of justice cases – all of which he was later
acquitted of – when Starr was given
taped conversations between the former
President and Lewinsky by her Defense
Department co-worker Linda Tripp, who
had been secretly recording them.
It led to a 21-day Senate trial, during
which Clinton’s carefully worded
argument hinged on the meaning of the
word ‘is’ when determining the
truthfulness of the statement: “There is
not a sexual relationship, an improper
sexual relationship or any other kind of
improper relationship.”
It was the now infamous blue dress, gifted
to Lewinsky by Clinton, that provided the
DNA evidence proving the relationship
had existed, despite Clinton’s initial
denials that he “did not have sexual
relations with that woman, Miss
Lewinsky”.
“I never told anybody to lie, not a single
time; never,” he stated at the time. “These
allegations are false. And I need to go
back to work for the American people.
Thank you.”
On 17 August 1998, Clinton admitted that
he had in fact engaged in an “improper
physical relationship” with Lewinsky.
That evening, he gave a nationally
broadcast statement admitting to the
relationship, which he deemed “not
appropriate”.
He was subsequently impeached by the
U.S. House of Representatives.
His wife, Hillary Clinton, went on to
become the 67th United States Secretary
of State, serving alongside President
Obama from 2009 to 2013.
The full column will appear in the June
issue of Vanity Fair, available digitally on
8 May and in print format from 13 May.