- Monica Lewinsky was interviewed on the Call Her Daddy podcast
- Lewinksy rose to fame after having an affair with President Bill Clinton in the 1990s
- Lewinksy revealed a lot about herself and the affair and that time
Monica Lewinsky has joined the ranks of celebrities on podcasts, appearing on an episode of Call Her Daddy, released on 26 February. The hour-long episode was teased on Alex Cooper’s social media where she hinted that Lewinsky would speak about the scandal that shot her to fame.
If you’re old enough to remember, you’ll know her name. Lewinsky became prolific in the media in January 1998 when it was revealed she was having an affair with President Bill Clinton.
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Clinton had been married to his wife Hillary Clinton since 1975 at the time and is still with her today. Clinton ran against Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016.
How did the affair come about?
At the time, Lewinsky was an intern at the White House. This relationship with Clinton occurred from November 1995 to March 1997. She was transferred in 1996 to work at the Pentagon because people working at The White House thought she was too close to Clinton. On 26 January 1998, President Clinton did a press conference where he famously said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”
Over the years she has spoken about the affair but was bound by an immunity agreement before. This isn’t the first time that affair rumors have swirled around former presidents. For a few years, rumors about Barrack Obama dating Jennifer Anniston have plagued the former president, although he denied them.
Now with Lewinsky speaking on one of the most viral podcasts, here is what she said.
What did Monica Lewinsky say on Call Her Daddy?
The podcast starts with Cooper recapping the history of Clinton and Lewinsky’s affair how it came to be, and how Lewinksy was treated afterward. In the first few minutes, it is revealed that she is launching a podcast titled Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky to discuss taking back your name and image.
Launching her podcast
On why she decided to do it, she said: “It felt for me like it was the next step for my own reclaiming and my own experiences having lost my narrative, almost my life at 24.”
The 51-year-old spoke about how her podcast was about reclaiming her name against what the media and public said about her.
The Bill Clinton- Monica Lewinsky affair
Cooper asks her to describe the moment she found out the world knew about the relationship. The activist goes on to say that she knew about the investigation “several days before the world did”. She reveals there was a sting operation in a mall and she felt like “her life was over” from the news breaking.
She was threatened with jail time
Aside from speaking about her feelings, Lewinsky speaks about what she was threatened with if she didn’t cooperate with the FBI investigation. Speaking to Cooper, she says she was “threatened with jail” and if she didn’t comply with the investigation she would “go to jail for 27 years”.
“I remember opening the door and these were the times when people would get newspapers delivered. And in DC, it was always several, like the Post, and The New York Times. I remember seeing my name above the fold, and the investigation and looking down the hall and seeing the same newspaper outside everybody’s doors.”
At that moment, Lewinsky said it was “shocking and terrifying” and she didn’t know how to cope with the news being broke.
Lewinsky was constantly watched by the FBI
Not necessarily a surprising takeaway, but Lewinsky reveals that she was constantly watched by FBI agents. While staying in the Ritz Carlton when the investigation began she begged the FBI agents to call her mom. She did and one of the agents had their “hand over the hang up” button, and she realized then how bad it was.
However, she did say that eventually she was allowed to “ask for her mom” after she had refused to cooperate after a few hours. She said her dad was at a medical conference and he came down to DC with his friend, who was a malpractice attorney. Also at this time, she reveals she was “discouraged from getting a lawyer” to help her case.
The media portrayed her as the one in the wrong
Cooper asked Lewinsky to explain how the media covered her. In response, Lewinsky said: “I think for five seconds it was sympathetic. Once The White House got in gear, I was very quickly painted as a stalker, a w****, mentally unstable, a bimbo. Both the pursuer in this and also not attractive enough to be pursued. Really, it was a creation, a version of me I didn’t recognize.”
After that, Lewinsky briefly acknowledged the “power imbalance” during the relationship. Clinton was technically her boss and there was a 27-year age gap between them. He was 49, and she was 22 when the relationship began.
“There were times that I was angry or frustrated, I was so humiliated,” she recalled.
Women were worse to Lewinsky than men
At the time, she recalled women were more critical of her than men. “The men told the jokes, the women sort of eviscerated me.” Although she did admit she “made mistakes” in regards to the affair, even if “Bill’s behavior was more reprehensible than mine”. Preach.
Nowadays the reaction to women in the media is different even as far as affairs are concerned.
In addition to the reaction from women, she spoke about the response of each generation as the article came out. “It was really interesting to have this front-row seat at the very beginning of the article coming out. It was sort of the same voices, the same “go away, you’ve had your 15 minutes”. It was the younger generation, the younger journalists, the younger women journalists who were starting to say, “Hold up.”
The story was officially broken in The Washington Post.
Monica Lewinsky felt like the White House “gaslit” her
Revealing her feelings about The White House at the time, Lewinsky said she felt as if they were trying to “gaslight” her. In the media, Lewinsky was painted as a stalker towards Clinton, even though the relationship was mutual.
“I don’t think The White House’s intention was to gaslight me, I think the intention was to stay in power and get out of legal jeopardy,” she told Cooper. In using the term gaslight, she said she felt like at the time she may’ve interpreted everything wrong.
Lewinsky revealed she felt suicidal
Although she spoke about being suicidal before, Lewinsky did say she felt like the news was “too much” a few weeks into the investigation. At a certain point, she hit rock bottom, which she discussed with Cooper.
“I remember thinking, ‘Ok, I’m going to call her and if she answers, I’m staying. If she doesn’t, I’m out,” Lewinsky revealed. Her therapist was the person she was thinking about calling.
To pull herself out of the dark pit, she said she thought about “moments of grace”. The process is having that experience, getting through a certain moment, and then moving on.
Monica Lewinsky said it took until 2010 for her to realize “how much she lost”
Recalling her experience post-graduate school, she revealed it took her until “2010” to realize her loss.
“I would have moments of being angry. But it wasn’t until I came out of graduate school that I couldn’t get a job. At the point where I was because I was in my early 30s. Now all of my friends have gotten married, most of them have kids, and some of them are even going on their second marriages! The second and third kids and I have nothing. Or that feeling of nothing.”
Lewinsky couldn’t get a job after the affair
During that moment, Lewinksy realized how much the scandal had impacted her life. During this period of her life, she said she wasn’t allowed to interview at certain places, especially in 2008 when Hillary ran for president for the first time.
“It was 2007 when I was job-hunting, Hillary was running in 2008. So there was this high likelihood that she would become president or get the nomination. In this period of time when I was job hunting people were saying, ‘Can you get a letter of indemnification’ if they hired me because they relied on grants.”
She wouldn’t change her name
A solution to getting a job could’ve been to change her last name, but Lewinsky said she wouldn’t. In terms of practicality if someone recognized her she thought it wouldn’t work anyway.
“I think as time went on I came to feel very strongly that I didn’t want to change my name, why should I have to change my name? I bet nobody has asked Bill if he ever thought about changing his name. I get he was the most famous man in the world at the moment and the President etcetera, but the idea would never cross someone’s mind to a man,” she explained.
True.
The relationship was consensual, but there was a power dynamic
Lewinsky noted that the relationship was “consensual” between her and the former President. Regardless she did acknowledge that she shouldn’t have been in that situation, and the person with more power (a.k.a Clinton in this case) should shut down any relationship of the sort.
Lewinsky thinks that Clinton should’ve resigned
Ouch, well she did say that. Cooper asked her how she thought Clinton should’ve handled the news. “I think the right way to handle a situation like that would be to probably say it was nobody’s business and resign. Or find a way to stay in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person who just started out in the world under the bus,” she answered.
About the White House’s handling of the situation, she said she didn’t want to be “naive” and that is “complicated” because of the nature of the situation and who was involved.
She reveals she has received some apologies, but not from Bill or Linda
Lewinsky said she received some apologies from people “involved at the time” but nobody who was involved “above the fold”. So no presidential apology then? She didn’t reveal whether she received one from Linda Tripp. Tripp was responsible for handing over tapes of her phone calls with Lewinksy to the FBI. She and Lewinsky were friends while working together at The White House. On the phone, Lewinsky spoke to her about the relationship.
Years after the exposure of the affair, she said that she would always be partly defined by it and lost her future from it. A part of her future she lost which she reflects on is dating, marriage, and children, but she says she is “past that now”.
“Do not go to Washington”
The interview concludes with Lewinsky responding to what she would say to her 22-year-old self, and she jokes, “Do not go to Washington”.
That is the biggest takeaway from Monica Lewinsky’s podcast interview. If there is any more news, we will be sure to update you on it!
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
