Decades Later, Monica Lewinsky Says Bill Clinton Fallout Still Haunts Her [WATCH]

Monica Lewinsky is once again speaking publicly about the personal toll of the Clinton White House scandal, saying nearly 30 years later, she still lives with fear stemming from the intense public backlash that followed her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton, as reported by Fox News.

Lewinsky discussed the lasting impact of the scandal during a recent conversation with actress Jameela Jamil on the “Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky” podcast.

The discussion focused on public shaming, trauma, and the long-term consequences of being thrust into a global media firestorm in the late 1990s.

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Jamil asked Lewinsky how she is doing today after years of scrutiny that went far beyond the political ramifications of the scandal.

“How do you feel now? Having your life, your identity, your appearance in particular picked apart, where are you at with all of this?” Jamil asked.

Lewinsky said she has gained confidence over time, but said the emotional scars remain.

“I think I fall in a place where I feel more confident in myself as a person … I feel like every time I’m able to be more myself in the world and have it reflected back to me that that’s what’s been received, I think that I shed skin of trauma for myself from the older days,” Lewinsky said.

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Jamil noted that when the scandal erupted, Lewinsky had no real ability to respond publicly or defend herself as the story unfolded across traditional media outlets.

“There was no outlet for you to have any control over your own narrative back then. Like now, you actually have a place where you can immediately offer a rebuttal,” Jamil said.

Lewinsky agreed but said fear still prevents her from fully exercising that freedom.

“Yes. But I don’t always … I still live in a lot of fear … It just may sound crazy, which is almost like an earthquake will happen and everything I’ve built in the last 11 years – oh gosh, it is making me emotional – will be taken away again, and I’ll somehow find myself without purpose or, you know, without an income,” Lewinsky said.

The comments come nearly three decades after Lewinsky, then a White House intern, became involved in an affair with Clinton while he was serving as president.

The revelation led to impeachment proceedings against Clinton in December 1998. While Clinton remained in office after his acquittal by the Senate, Lewinsky became the focus of relentless public ridicule, media attention, and widespread humiliation.

Lewinsky told Jamil that moving forward continues to be a challenge.

“I think … it’s just trying to hold on to what’s now and not what was, right? But the living through the ‘what was’ is, you know, which I know you have done in your own ways too … you talking about having been suicidal,” Lewinsky said.

Jamil responded by describing her own experience with public shaming and its psychological consequences.

“A global pile-on made me suicidal. It’s really intense … everything did get taken from me for a while. Not at the scale — and it was global when it happened to me — but not at the scale of what happened to you,” Jamil said.

In the years since the scandal, Lewinsky has reemerged in the public eye as an anti-bullying advocate and speaker. She frequently discusses the effects of public shaming and how the events of the late 1990s continue to shape her life. Despite increased visibility and control over her narrative, Lewinsky said the fear associated with that chapter of her life has never fully disappeared.

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