Monica Lewinsky Confesses Clinton Affair Scandal Taught Her ‘Important’ Lesson

Monica Lewinsky says the scandal that made her one of the most famous — and most publicly ridiculed — women in America also taught her an unexpected lesson about judging other women.

Lewinsky, who was in her early 20s when her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton became a national sensation in the 1990s, opened up about how the experience changed the way she looks at women who find themselves in desperate financial situations.

During a re-released appearance on Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, Lewinsky said she learned not to judge women who decide to pose nude for money when they feel they have few other choices.

“Going through my experience, I really learned to not judge women who have found themselves in difficult situations who then chose to pose nude for money,” Lewinsky said.

She explained that she was fortunate enough to have financial support from her family while her own life and career were being turned upside down.

“Sometimes I was lucky,” she said. “I came from an upper-middle-class family who could help me. Some people don’t. And that’s their only f—— option.”

Lewinsky became the center of an international media frenzy after her relationship with Clinton was revealed while she was a young former White House intern.

The scandal triggered years of intense scrutiny, ridicule and public humiliation for Lewinsky, who has since spoken extensively about the devastating consequences of becoming one of the earliest major targets of internet-driven public shaming.

She later transformed that experience into advocacy work focused on bullying, online harassment and public humiliation.

But Lewinsky also revealed that she had opportunities to make an enormous amount of money from her notoriety — opportunities she ultimately rejected.

Lewinsky said she once calculated that she had turned down roughly $11 million in offers over the years.

“I had turned down like $11 million, which was a lot of money for me,” she said. “That’s a lot of money.”

Lewinsky did not reveal exactly what she was being asked to do in exchange for the money, but suggested some opportunities crossed personal lines she was unwilling to compromise.

“There’s what you turn down, there’s what’s coming towards you, what you have to turn down to try to be able to look yourself in the mirror, if you can,” she said.

Her comments echo remarks Lewinsky has made previously about the extraordinary financial offers that followed the Clinton scandal. In a 2014 Vanity Fair essay, she said she rejected opportunities worth more than $10 million because they did not feel like the right thing to do.

Ripa, meanwhile, offered an emotional defense of Lewinsky during the podcast, arguing that the scandal should not define the rest of her life.

“Our next guest was 24 years old when she endured one of the most public and painful experiences a young woman, man, person could possibly face,” Ripa said while introducing her.

“But what truly defines her isn’t the scandal. It’s what she’s done in the aftermath.”

Ripa praised Lewinsky for turning what she described as personal trauma into public service and for helping change the conversation surrounding victim blaming, bullying and online cruelty.

“I adore this woman,” Ripa said. “I’ve known her a long time. And she’s just a gift, she’s a gift of a human being.”

Ripa also argued that the public image created around Lewinsky during the Clinton scandal bears little resemblance to the woman she knows personally.

“She was so written about, so talked about, so scrutinized, so analyzed,” Ripa said. “And yet it’s funny to know her. You realize that the press, the collective, the narrative has gotten everything wrong about a person that they could possibly get wrong.”

Lewinsky has spent years attempting to reclaim control over her story. She has become a prominent anti-bullying advocate and has spoken publicly about the culture of humiliation that surrounded her in the late 1990s.

The re-released podcast episode, titled Monica Lewinsky: Is Reclaiming Her Narrative, was published on Sept. 2 and focused on her efforts to move beyond the scandal that once consumed her life.