It’s been 27 years since the infamous sex scandal between former President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky rocked the news — and the fabric of DC politics as we know it.
And while scandal exposed the dark secrets that happened behind closed doors during the Clinton administration, both Clinton and Lewinsky have seemingly moved on with their professional lives.
But more than 25 years later, Lewinsky is finally at a point where she feels compelled to tell her bombshell side of the story with then-President Clinton.
Lewinsky will debut a new Wondery podcast, Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky, an interview-based talk series about taking back what has been lost or stolen from the infamous scandal and the affair with Clinton.
Monica Lewinsky Launches First Podcast With Wondery https://t.co/Ufz4JDMawv
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 29, 2025
Lewinsky wants her podcast to frame the concept of reclamation in a different light.
“I didn’t want to have something that felt too prescriptive,” she says. Self-help shows “are so valuable to people, but I wanted to have a show that felt like people could come and find their own experience in it—nuggets that they might be able to take away to help them, whether it’s to feel a little hopeful or it shifts their energy ’cause they laughed when they needed to, or it makes them feel a little more connected.”
The new move comes as Lewinsky has slowly started to share more details about her life and the backlash she’s faced in her personal life due to the Clinton scandal.
In an essay for Vanity Fair published last July, Lewinsky opened up about how she still faces bullying and judgment from the scandal that follow her around to this day.
In particular, Lewinsky shared a story about a moment when her professional career hit a major high, only for it to be derailed by Clinton (albeit indirectly).
Lewinsky shared an anecdote about being uninvited from an event at the very last minute because a Clinton made his way onto the guest list.
“In 2018, I was asked by Vanity Fair’s newly appointed editor, Radhika Jones, to address the #MeToo moment in an essay in which I unpacked my own thoughts about what constituted consent in a workplace relationship with a quintessential power differential,” she explained. “Shortly thereafter, I was disinvited to a philanthropy summit because former President Bill Clinton was a last-minute addition to the roster.”
Lewinsky also wrote about her experience in the public eye, describing a situation in which a “famous diva” dismissed her, assuming that she was simply another guest’s “plus-one”—all after she’d been nominated for a National Magazine Award.
As far as she’s come, Lewinsky explained, there were always moments where she felt knocked down and reminded that many people wouldn’t ever give her the respect she deserved, even though she had earned her accolades.
“Over the years, I’ve spoken confidentially to many people who have been publicly shamed and have explained that taking back one’s narrative doesn’t happen overnight and is (annoyingly) replete with plenty of setbacks,” Lewinsky wrote.
“While the essay went on to be nominated for a National Magazine Award (I’m not kidding, alongside pieces by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roger Angell—Angell won), the following month, I attended a party in L.A. and a famous diva asked me, point-blank, if I was someone’s plus-one. When I replied I had been invited, she snarked, ‘They just let everyone in tonight, didn’t they?’ (Yes, really.)”
Last November, Clinton did open up about his role in the scandal and the public fallout that impacted Lewinsky.
Clinton’s new memoir “Citizen” details remorse he had about the situtation.
“I said, ‘No, I felt terrible then.’ ‘Did you ever apologize to her?’ I said that I had apologized to her and everybody else I wronged. I was caught off guard by what came next. ‘But you didn’t apologize to her, at least according to folks that we’ve talked to.’ I fought to contain my frustration as I replied that while I’d never talked to her directly, I did say publicly on more than [one] occasion I was sorry.”
Clinton ended by saying in his book:
“I live with it all the time. I wish her nothing but the best.”
Reflecting on all the times she faced adversity for simply sharing her story, Lewinsky finished her latest essay by saying that “we never know what lurks or enlivens around the next corner” and that she doesn’t ever lose hope that she—and other people who’ve been publicly shamed—can rise above the criticism and grow from their experiences.
The show will be available weekly via audio and video formats, beginning next week.