Scandal Early On
Monica Lewinsky, the famed former Clinton-era White House intern turned social activist, has been in the headlines recently regarding an upcoming HLN Special covering her and old Bill’s sexual scandal in the mid 90’s. While The HLN special (which is a subsidiary of CNN), is trying to paint her in a bad light, she is trying to take control of the story and put it in her words.
Let’s get do a quick recap of Monica’s fiery history and see what she is up to now!
Escaping to Portland
Following graduation from Beverly Hills High School in 1992, she worked in the school’s drama department, where she allegedly had a years-long affair with her married former drama instructor Andy Bleiler.
After the Los Angeles life became too much for her and her affair with Andy turned sour, she enrolled at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
Moving to D.C.
She stayed their for 2 years and graduated with a bachelor degree in Psychology in 1995.
With the assistance of a family connection, Lewinsky got an unpaid summer White House internship in the office of White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. Lewinsky moved to Washington, D.C. and took up the position in July 1995.
The Scandal
She moved to a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in December 1995. It didn’t take long for her and Bill Clinton to “get acquainted.”
Everyone at this point knows the story, but let’s do a quick recap: between November 1995 and March 1997, Monica Lewinsky had nine sexual encounters with then-President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. These involved fellatio and other acts, but apparently not sexual intercourse.
Bill’s Predatory Nature
While that was wrong for her to pursue the president, new facts are coming out that are showing she was probably a victim of sexual harassment. But at the time, it was her word against the president’s, and while Bill was eventually impeached, Monica definitely took the majority of the blow.
Before Monica ever stepped into the Oval Office, Bill was racking up a track record of sexual misconduct in the workplace. Clinton had previously been confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct during his time as Governor of Arkansas.
The Tipping Point for Monica
Former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones filed a civil lawsuit against him; she alleged 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 that 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 she was spending too much time around Clinton. At the Pentagon, she worked as an assistant to chief Pentagon spokesperson Kenneth Bacon.
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Lewinsky told co-worker Linda Tripp about her relationship with the President.
Beginning in September 1997, Tripp began secretly recording their telephone conversations regarding the affair with Clinton. In December 1997, Lewinsky left the Pentagon position.
Gathering Evidence
In January 1998, after Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying any physical relationship with Clinton, and had attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in that case, Tripp gave the tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, adding to his ongoing investigation into the Whitewater controversy.
Tripp reported the taped conversations to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg. She also convinced Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her during their relationship, and not to dry clean what would later become known as "the blue dress".
Opening the Flood Gates
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.
Presidential Circus
The matter instantly occupied the news media, and Lewinsky spent the next weeks hiding from public attention in her mother's residence at the Watergate complex.
The subsequent storm of accusations, blatant lies, and uncovered evidence provided a presidential circus for the nation to watch, and Monica Lewinsky was at the center.
Transactional Immunity
The preserved blue dress Lewinsky had had Clinton’s semen stain on it, and Clinton gave the media and the judicial system the runaround, trying to talk his way out of trouble by saying that he never performed sexual acts, but rather they were performed on him.
After everything, Clinton and Lewinsky were both called before a grand jury. Clinton testified via closed-circuit television, Lewinsky in person.
Life after Clinton
She was granted transactional immunity by the United States Office of the Independent Counsel, in exchange for her testimony.
After being granted immunity, which barred her from speaking about the affair publicly until 2002, Monica helped with the creation of her biography, “Monica’s Story.” Shortly after it’s release Monica appeared on 20/20 with Barbara Walters, where she was watched by 70 million Americans (a record at the time).
Handbags as a New Start
She also appeared on a couple of skits in the May 8, 1999 episode of Saturday Night Live.
In September 1999, she took this interest further by beginning to sell a line of handbags bearing her name, under the company name The Real Monica, Inc.
Newfound Notoriety
They were sold online as well as at Henri Bendel in New York, Fred Segal in California, and The Cross in London.The bags were described by the New Yorker as “hippie-ish”.
The Jenny Craig Campaign
Her ordeal with the former president also turned her into a pop culture icon, granting her A-List notoriety in the Manhattan social scene.
At the start of 2000, Lewinsky began appearing in television commercials for the diet company Jenny 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.
The HBO Special
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.
In March 2002, Lewinsky, no longer bound by the terms of her immunity agreement, appeared in the HBO special, "Monica in Black and White", part of the America Undercover series.
Escape to London
In it she answered a studio audience's questions about her life and the Clinton affair.
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 line and moved to London to study social psychology at the London School of Economics.
The Re-emergence of a Social Icon
In December 2006, Lewinsky graduated with a Master of Science degree. 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.
In May 2014, Lewinsky wrote an essay for Vanity Fair magazine 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.
Patient Zero of Online Harassment
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 a Vanity Fair contributor, stating she would "contribute to their website on an ongoing basis, on the lookout for relevant topics of interest".
In October 2014, she took a public stand against cyberbullying, calling herself "patient zero" of online harassment.
Speaking at a Forbes magazine "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 the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman, involving cyberbullying and joined Twitter to facilitate her efforts.