It’s a late 90’s flashback thanks to an article in Vanity Fair written by Monica Lewinsky:
Monica Lewinsky is taking to the pages of Vanity Fair to address her affair with former President Bill Clinton, writing that she avoided the spotlight for fear of becoming an issue during Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, but adding that the time has come to stop “tiptoeing around my past — and other people’s futures.”
“I remained virtually reclusive, despite being inundated with press requests. I put off announcing several media projects in 2012 until after the election,” Lewinsky, 40, writes in the magazine’s upcoming June issue, according to a press release Tuesday. “And recently I’ve found myself gun-shy yet again, fearful of ‘becoming an issue’ should [Hillary Clinton] decide to ramp up her campaign. But should I put my life on hold for another 8 to 10 years?”
Lewinsky adds that her planned media projects fell through and also denies reports that she had secured a $12 million tell-all book deal.
In the brief excerpts posted by the magazine and the press release from Vanity Fair, Lewinsky dismisses claims her decade of silence was because the “Clintons must have paid me off,” saying nothing is further from the truth and she explains why she has decided to speak out.
“I am determined to have a different ending to my story. I’ve decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past. (What this will cost me, I will soon find out.),” she writes.
“It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress,” adds Lewinsky, who is lying on a couch and wearing a white dress in the photo with the excerpts.
Lewinsky also addresses the recently released files of Hillary Clinton’s close friend, Diane Blair, in which the then-first lady reportedly called Lewinsky a “narcissistic loony toon.”
“If that’s the worst thing she said, I should be so lucky,” Lewinsky writes. “Mrs. Clinton, I read, had supposedly confided to Blair that, in part, she blamed herself for her husband’s affair (by being emotionally neglectful) and seemed to forgive him.”
Lewinsky adds, “Hillary Clinton wanted it on record that she was lashing out at her husband’s mistress. She may have faulted her husband for being inappropriate, but I find her impulse to blame the Woman—not only me, but herself—troubling.”
Lewinsky gained national attention in 1998 following news of her affair with Clinton while she was an intern in the White House. She writes, “Sure, my boss took advantage of me,” but adds that she considered it a consensual relationship.
“Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position,” Lewinsky writes.
Lewinsky says that she “deeply regret[s]” the scandal, which rocked Clinton’s presidency after he initially denied the relationship, leading impeachment by the House and later acquittal in the Senate.
“I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened,” Lewinsky writes.
If Hilary Clinton runs for President, it seems inevitable that the Lewinsky story will be the subject of discussion at some point. In fact, it already has. Given that, the cynical side of me can’t help but think that this is Lewinsky’s attempt to find a way to capitalize on that renewed interest in a very old and sordid story.
