--- title: What Monica Lewinsky Told TIME Magazine About Bill Clinton in 1999 description: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky reignited conversation about her affair with President Bill Clinton this week, thanks to a forthcoming Vanity Fair story titled... canonical: https://time.com/91173/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-affair/ author: ashley Ross article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-07T20:46:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:15.463Z og:title: “I got into trouble because I didn’t stop talking about the relationship, and now my punishment is that I have to keep talking about it.” og:description: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky reignited conversation about her affair with President Bill Clinton this week, thanks to a forthcoming Vanity Fair story titled... og:url: https://time.com/91173/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-affair/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8b0c392f1cea7bc/69868e39d0b6f206213042b8/lewinsky.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 400 og:image:height: 225 og:image:alt: Monica Lewinsky TIME cover og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: “I got into trouble because I didn’t stop talking about the relationship, and now my punishment is that I have to keep talking about it.” twitter:description: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky reignited conversation about her affair with President Bill Clinton this week, thanks to a forthcoming Vanity Fair story titled... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8b0c392f1cea7bc/69868e39d0b6f206213042b8/lewinsky.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5 Shocking Things Monica Lewinsky Told TIME About the Clinton Affair in 1999 > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [ashley Ross](https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/) ## ashley Ross May 7, 2014 8:46 PM UTC  by [ashley Ross](https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/) ## ashley Ross May 7, 2014 8:46 PM UTC Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky reignited conversation about her affair with President Bill Clinton this week, thanks to a forthcoming [_Vanity Fair_ ](http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/05/monica-lewinsky-speaks?mbid=social%5Ftwitter)story titled “Shame and Survival.” Lewinsky has kept a low profile since the affair. When she has returned to the spotlight, she has often drawn controversy. In 1999, [Lewinsky gave a rare interview to TIME](http://time.com/90947/interview-monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton/). See what she had to say about her mistakes, humiliation and becoming a celebrity. 1) **She had regrets.** “I really feel the worst about what this has done to my family and friends. And then I think second to that would be Chelsea and Mrs. Clinton, and I do feel bad about my part in how the country has had to deal with this. I made a lot of mistakes. I mean, that’s probably a bipartisan issue. Everybody in the world would agree on that.” 2) **She thought she was “pretty discreet.”** “I didn’t have the maturity to realize exactly how serious this was. Although some people may find this hard to believe, me actually only telling 10 people was being pretty discreet for me. But I still feel horrible about how indiscreet I was. That was a real betrayal. I betrayed the President in that way. I didn’t have the foresight to see what the possible ramifications of this could be. “ 3) **Talking is the best (and worst) punishment.** “I got into trouble because I didn’t stop talking about the relationship, and now my punishment is that I have to keep talking about it.” 4) **It’s all about eye contact.** “It was definitely inappropriate. And the way he was flirting with me was inappropriate. So I think was the eye contact. And the way he looks at women he’s attracted to. He undresses you with his eyes. And it is slow, from the bottom of your toes to the top of your head back down to your toes again. And it’s an intense look. He loses his smile. His sexual energy kind of comes over his eyes, and it’s very animalistic. And if you’re someone who is comfortable with your sensuality, you’re in touch with that, you’re receptive to it if you find that person attractive.” 5) **She didn’t want to be celebrated.** “I don’t consider \[myself\] a celebrity, because I think that the root of the word is celebrated: someone society should celebrate, and while I haven’t given autographs, people have asked, which is so bizarre to me. I don’t feel that I should be honored for what I’m known for.” Read _TIME_‘s entire exclusive interview with Monica Lewinsky [here](http://time.com/90947/interview-monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/91173/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-affair/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/91173/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-affair/"},"headline":"5 Shocking Things Monica Lewinsky Told TIME About the Clinton Affair in 1999","datePublished":"2014-05-07T20:46:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:15.463Z","description":"Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky reignited conversation about her affair with President Bill Clinton this week, thanks to a forthcoming Vanity Fair story titled...","url":"https://time.com/91173/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-affair/","keywords":["Living","Hillary Clinton","politics","Clinton","Monica Lewinsky","Bill Clinton","chelsea clinton"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8b0c392f1cea7bc/69868e39d0b6f206213042b8/lewinsky.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"ashley Ross","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8b0c392f1cea7bc/69868e39d0b6f206213042b8/lewinsky.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Monica Lewinsky TIME cover","caption":"","creditText":"","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/91173/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-affair/","name":"5 Shocking Things Monica Lewinsky Told TIME About the Clinton Affair in 1999"}}]}] ```