Who is Monica Lewinsky and where is she now? Know more about the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal

In the late 1990s, especially in 1997 and 1998, Monica Lewinsky became a household name, known globally due to her alleged involvement in sexual affairs with the former United States President, Bill Clinton. She made several headlines in all categories of media, especially the online media, where she was cyberbullied and harassed consistently. Years later, she said, “In 1998, when news of my affair with Bill Clinton broke, I was arguably the most humiliated person in the world. Thanks to the Drudge Report, I was also possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the internet.”

Lewinsky could not stand the humiliation and had to disappear from the public eye and the media for over a decade, but later made a comeback with a new personality. She has currently become an activist and advocate against bullying, a public speaker, and a writer, using her platforms to give hope to those who may have faced a similar situation to hers.

Profile Summary

Who is Monica Lewinsky?

Monica Lewinsky is a famous American Activist, Writer, Media Personality and fashion designer, born July 23, 1973, in San Francisco, California, United States of America. She became famous in the late 1990s after her alleged sexual scandal with former United States President Bill Clinton was exposed.

The affair, which was tagged the “Clinton Lewinsky Scandal”, and its attendant effect sparked uproar across the globe and lasted for a couple of years before it finally began to subside after several legal tussles and media paparazzi that led to Clinton’s impeachment and Monica’s disappearance from the public eyes.

Her reemergence came with a new personality and a different orientation; she finally accepted her fate and later turned into a crusader who saddled herself with the responsibility of using her past life, which she later regretted,” to teach others, especially the younger generation, how to survive and have a renewed hope even amidst such ugly situations.

This new phase came after she shared with her mother an incident that happened to a college freshman, Tyler Clementi, who died by suicide in 2010 after he was secretly live-streamed kissing another man. Prior to this event, Monica had severally considered suicidal thoughts during the wave of the “Clinton Lewinsky Scandal.” but the consistent presence of her mother could not allow her to do that. Seeing that she survived her situation and was able to move on after all the hurdles, Monica became an inspiration to people who are bullied due to their mistakes and similar reasons. She became a public speaker and writer, also giving TED Talks and hosting television shows where she share her experience and draws out lessons for her audience or readers.

Monica Lewinsky’s Early Life and Family

Monica Lewinsky was born on July 23, 1973, in San Francisco. She grew up in Los Angeles in a Jewish household with her parents, Marcia and Bernard. Her family was very well-to-do, as both her father and mother were doctors. She had a brother named Michael. Her parents later divorced, and both remarried while Monica moved on with her mother. Her grandparents were very wealthy Jews who had fled Nazi Germany along with their wealth in 1937. Lewinsky reported receiving a trust fund of $11 million from her family’s estates, which involved art, antiques, real estate properties, and cash.

Monica attended various schools, including Bel Air Prep, Sinai Skins Academy, and Beverly Hills High School. She graduated from high school in the year 1991 and gained admission into Lewis & Clark College in Portland, where she bagged a degree in psychology in the year 1995.

Monica Lewinsky’s Entry Into the White House And Affairs With Bill Clinton

The same year that Monica Lewinsky graduated from the Lewis & Clark College in Portland, which was in 1995, she proceeded to an internship in the White House.

According to reports from the Washington Post, she was just 21 years old when she began working as an unpaid summer intern at the White House while Bill Clinton, who was serving his first term as the United States President, was 48 years old. The duo first came in contact when Monica was working in the office of White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, who was a very close ally of the president.

Not quite long after, Monica was co-opted into the White House staff and started receiving a salary. She worked in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Subsequently, her relationship with the president became suspicious as they were often seen communicating, spending quality time, going on outings, and exchanging gifts.

Ken Starr, an independent counsel who was investigating the president as at the time, later revealed that Lewinsky and Clinton had at least ten sexual encounters within a period of two years. The connection became so intense and palpable such that Monica’s superiors became enormously concerned and had to transfer her from the White House to a public affairs position at the Pentagon in April 1996 in order to curtail the intimacy. But their effort proved abortive as they continued having the affairs until Clinton deemed it expedient to end it in May 1997, although they kept making contact even after that.

How was Lewinsky and Clinton’s affair exposed, and what were public reactions?

By this time, Lewinsky had considered the affair to have ended and felt the need to confide in one of her co-workers, who was also a close friend named Linda Tripp. The two women were having a tete-a-tete one of those days, and Lewinsky decided to give a detailed account of what had been transpiring between her and the president, who was a married man, unknowing to Lewinsky that Tripp had been monitoring and recording her private conversations prior to that fateful day when she finally got everything she needed. Tripp shared the recording with a reporter from Newsweek and a literary agent. However, the story was kept for the meantime and was not heard nor published anywhere.

In the heat of this, President Bill Clinton was already been investigated for other allegations that were levelled against him, especially the one from Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee who alleged that Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted her while he was the Arkansas state governor. She was already seeking justice in the court. While her counsels were carrying out their investigations to find facts that could grant them victory against Clinton, they got a snippet of the affair between Clinton and Lewinsky and summoned Lewinsky to come and testify in court, but she denied it. Months later, Lewinsky visited the White House, and it was alleged that President Clinton encouraged her never to ever speak out about what they had been having together, regardless of what happened, and she obliged.

In her quest to grapple with what could be done to avoid being called up again in court for the same issue, her lawyer advised her to swear an affidavit and deny ever having a sexual affair with President Bill Clinton, and that would automatically stop immune her from being deposed in Jones’ case. She was convinced and officially signed the affidavit in January 1998, claiming she had never had any sexual relationship with Bill Clinton. Not long from that moment, Tripp took the recording containing all she said about her secret sexual relationship with Clinton to Starr, who was already carrying an investigation against the president for alleged involvement in a real estate fraud deal.

By this time, Lewinsky had become deeply involved. The Justice Department granted Starr consent to investigate Lewinsky for obstructing justice by not being willing to testify in Jones’s case. Subsequently, the FBI also summoned Lewinsky for questioning. The next day, Clinton, in disposition, reportedly denied his involvement in a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.” His now-infamous line, which was used against him during his impeachment saga.

Shockingly, the Drudge Report broke the news of Clinton and Lewinsky’s affairs on their platform a day after Clinton disclaimed the then-rumour. They also revealed that Newsweek had concealed the information and refused to publish it. Details of how they got the recording remain a mystery.

The news became the most trending global news in all media; Lewinsky was humiliated and called names such as slut, whore and the like; she ran and hid in her mother’s house while trying to avoid media interviews and public embarrassment. For a couple of months, she could only come out to meet her doctor and occasionally have other supervised outings. She subsequently bowed to pressure and accepted an in-depth interview with Starr, after which she was granted immunity and legal protection, limiting what she could speak publicly. The interview was recorded as the second-most-watched interview in the history of television, with over 70 million people watching it live. She ate her humble pie and later went into obscurity for more than ten years before returning to the spotlight.

Why did Monica Lewinsky become a prominent Public Speaker again after being in obscurity for over a decade?

Monica Lewinsky apparently regretted what transpired between her and Bill Clinton. She could not face the shame in public and decided to hide herself for over a decade before making public appearances again. During this period, she considered attaining more height in education. She left for England in 2005 and enrolled at the London School of Economics, where she bagged a master’s degree in social psychology. This was part of the numerous things she tried in order to escape from the trauma of the “Lewinsky-Clinton Scandal”, which had ruined her public image.

She returned to the United States upon graduation; at this time, she had gathered some courage to move freely in public but was still reluctant to grant press interviews in order not to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential ambition. Until 2014, Monica Lewinsky bounced back and began to use any platform she had to encourage people who were going through traumas and bullying, considering she had had the experience and was able to pull through.

The ultimate propellant, according to her, was when an 18 years-old fresh college student, Tyler Clementi, who was schooling at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, took his life by jumping from the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River on September 22, 2010, because he was caught in a camera kissing his fellow man. His roommate, Dharun Ravi, used a webcam in their computer room to secretly live-stream him kissing a man on the 19th of September 2010. Tyler was ridiculed and bullied until he felt the only way out was to end his life, and he committed suicide.

Monica Lewinsky believed that Tyler Clementi could have overcome the trauma, shame, and humiliation and moved on just like her if only he had platforms and people who could counsel him and renew his hope. Therefore, she deemed it expedient to use her story and inspire people like herself and Tyler, who are victims of bully and humiliation.

She wrote in Vanity Fair, “In the wake of Tyler’s tragedy, my own suffering took on a different meaning. Perhaps by sharing my story, I reasoned that 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?”

This question triggered Lewinsky to start sharing her story in TED Talks, interviews, and conferences, and she even authored books to allow her past to find expression in helping others who are victims of similar circumstances.

Who is Monica Lewinsky’s husband?

Although so many things about Monica Lewinsky are publicly known, she has decided to keep her relationship life private. In one of the interviews she granted in 2021, she was asked if she had a husband, but her responses amazed her audience. She said, ‘I Do Date, but I’m Not Married Yet’: ‘My Friendships Are What’s Important. ‘I kind of feel if anybody has earned a right to have their romantic life private, it’s me,” she added.

What is Monica Lewinsky’s Net Worth?

Monica Lewinsky is a prominent activist, public speaker, author, and businesswoman who has, due to her past life, turned her passion towards advocating for anti-bullying. She currently earns money from her books and businesses and has an estimated net worth of $1.5 million in 2024.

She collaborated with author Andrew Morton to publish Monica’s Story in 1999; her book advance was reportedly $500,000. She started making handbags shortly after her scandal with Bill Clinton was made public. The bags became a huge source of income for her as she received huge patronage, and she remarked that people could have been patronising her due to pity. However, she ensured that the bags were of good quality, which she also believed would sustain the brand.

What is Monica Lewinsky’s Height and Weight?

Monica Lewinsky is a gorgeous woman with an overly attractive body shape. She stands at an incredible height of 1.68 metres and weighs an average of 60 kg.