--- title: Monica Lewinsky to Break Silence About Clinton Affair in Vanity Fair description: Lewinsky says her affair with President Clinton was between two consenting adults, but that the real abuse was in the public shaming canonical: https://time.com/89292/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-vanity-fair/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-06T15:02:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:14.674Z og:title: Here's what Monica Lewinsky will say in a new tell-all about her Clinton affair og:description: Lewinsky says her affair with President Clinton was between two consenting adults, but that the real abuse was in the public shaming og:url: https://time.com/89292/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-vanity-fair/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt801b12a0e97b9493/69868e1f06f2c17eb332ec3a/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky embraces President Bill Clinton at a Democratic fundraiser in Washington, D.C., Oct. 23, 1996. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's what Monica Lewinsky will say in a new tell-all about her Clinton affair twitter:description: Lewinsky says her affair with President Clinton was between two consenting adults, but that the real abuse was in the public shaming twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt801b12a0e97b9493/69868e1f06f2c17eb332ec3a/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Monica Lewinsky: I 'Deeply Regret' Clinton Affair  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent May 6, 2014 3:02 PM UTC  Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky embraces President Bill Clinton at a Democratic fundraiser in Washington, D.C., Oct. 23, 1996. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky embraces President Bill Clinton at a Democratic fundraiser in Washington, D.C., Oct. 23, 1996.Dirck Halstead—Getty Images File  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent May 6, 2014 3:02 PM UTC Monica Lewinsky is set to recount what it was like to be the “first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet,” in [a forthcoming tell-all article](http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/05/monica-lewinsky-speaks?mbid=social%5Ftwitter) that will break years of silence for the woman made famous by her affair with then-President Bill Clinton. “I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton,” Lewinsky writes in the forthcoming issue of Vanity Fair, which goes online May 8 and hits newsstands May 13\. “Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened.” Lewinsky, who was a White House intern when her affair with Clinton ultimately led to his impeachment and threatened to derail his presidency, denies rumors that her silence means she’s being paid off by the Clintons, saying “nothing could be further from the truth.” Instead, she says she’s finally ready to stop “tiptoeing around my past—and other people’s futures. 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.” She insists that her relationship with the President wasn’t abusive, but the public humiliation that followed almost destroyed her. “Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship,” Lewinsky writes. “Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position. … The Clinton administration, the special prosecutor’s minions, the political operatives on both sides of the aisle, and the media were able to brand me. And that brand stuck, in part because it was imbued with power.” Lewinsky says she had a hard time finding work after the affair, mostly because her name was tainted with scandal, and she found herself sinking into a deep depression. Her mother feared she would kill herself. “She wouldn’t let me out of her sight,” Lewinsky writes. “She stayed by my bed, night after night, because I, too, was suicidal. The shame, the scorn, and the fear that had been thrown at her daughter left her afraid that I would take my own life—a fear that I would be literally humiliated to death.” Now she wants to help others who have been publicly humiliated, especially online. She writes that she wants to “get involved with efforts on behalf of victims of online humiliation and harassment and to start speaking on this topic in public forums.” Monica Lewinsky to Break Silence About Clinton Affair in Vanity Fair ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/89292/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-vanity-fair/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/89292/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-vanity-fair/"},"headline":"Monica Lewinsky: I 'Deeply Regret' Clinton Affair","datePublished":"2014-05-06T15:02:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:14.674Z","description":"Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky writes openly in a forthcoming tell-all about her affair with President Bill Clinton, saying she \"deeply\" regrets the tryst that brought her much public humiliation and almost destroyed her","url":"https://time.com/89292/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-vanity-fair/","keywords":["Living","politics","celebrities","Media","Scandal","Monica Lewinsky","Bill Clinton","Vanity Fair"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt801b12a0e97b9493/69868e1f06f2c17eb332ec3a/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt801b12a0e97b9493/69868e1f06f2c17eb332ec3a/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky embraces President Bill Clinton at a Democratic fundraiser in Washington, D.C., Oct. 23, 1996.","caption":"Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky embraces President Bill Clinton at a Democratic fundraiser in Washington, D.C., Oct. 23, 1996.","creditText":"Dirck Halstead—Getty Images File","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/89292/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-vanity-fair/","name":"Monica Lewinsky: I 'Deeply Regret' Clinton Affair"}}]}] ```