Monica Lewinsky, nearly three decades after her public entanglement with former President Bill Clinton, has one simple request for those who continue to reference the White House scandal: "I wish they would get some new jokes," she recently stated on the "All the Cool Girls" podcast.
Lewinsky, now 53, reflected on the challenges of her past, crediting time and patience with helping her evolve and shed anxieties. "You really start to give fewer and fewer f---s, and you settle into acceptance in a way that has been really reassuring for me," she told podcast co-hosts Laura Brown and Kristina O'Neill.
She noted that while she has moved forward, some critics remain stuck. "In terms of the people who still have old, old beliefs, I wish they would get some new jokes because, I mean, 30 years of the same jokes, Jesus," Lewinsky said. "Or 28 years. We're not at 30 yet."
The scandal began when Lewinsky, then 21, started an unpaid internship at the White House in July 1995. Her sexual relationship with then-49-year-old President Clinton commenced in November 1995. The affair became public after her conversations were secretly recorded by Pentagon co-worker Linda Tripp, which were then used in Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton.
During a January 1998 White House news conference, Clinton famously denied the affair, stating, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Lewinsky subsequently faced intense public scrutiny and humiliation.
Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in January 1999, facing charges of perjury and obstruction of justice related to the scandal. He was acquitted of these charges by the Senate in February 1999.
Lewinsky stated that she feels "really grateful" and "excited" about her journey of reclaiming her identity over the past decade. "It's when I step away and I look at my own story objectively – or as objectively as one can – it is pretty extraordinary to still be here, like physically still here, and to have been able to help shape how people see me more and understand me more and connect with me in ways that are meaningful. It's bonkers," she said.
Reflecting on authority and control, themes that have remained constant in her life, Lewinsky shared her evolving definition of power. "I think of power in two different ways. There's the power that someone has and they use, that impacts other people's power," she explained. "Then there's the power that someone has in connection to themselves and that's a lot more like strength."
She also described resilience not as a linear path, but as a spiral. "You will move forward, you'll go back, and move forward ... you'll go back, and I think it's, again, people have to be patient with themselves," Lewinsky said.