For years she has been a smutty punchline, the butt of jokes on late-night TV about stained dresses, over-enthusiastic interns and Oval Office etiquette.
Beyoncé made her surname into an obscene verb in one of her songs and a string of feminists lined up to ostracise and belittle her.
Right-on, Left-wing comics, writers and celebrities who would never have dreamed of attacking another young woman in a similar plight, treated Monica Lewinsky as fair game.
The reason was obvious — the former White House intern had almost brought down their champion of women’s rights and first Democrat president for more than a decade, Bill Clinton. There could be no forgiveness.
Slut-shamed, fat-shamed and victim-blamed, Lewinsky was made to feel a social outcast — nearly 20 years after the scandal, a famous actress stopped her at a Vanity Fair party and asked who had let her in.
Right-on, Left-wing comics, writers and celebrities who would never have dreamed of attacking another young woman in a similar plight, treated Monica Lewinsky as fair game
The affair lasted from 1995 to 1997, starting when Lewinsky was a 22-year-old intern and Clinton a 49-year-old president whose daughter Chelsea wasn’t much younger than Monica. She claimed their relationship amounted to just nine encounters in the Oval Office, in which the priority was invariably Clinton’s sexual gratification.
But even after the Harvey Weinstein scandal ushered in the #MeToo era and zero tolerance towards predatory sexual behaviour by powerful men, Lewinsky somehow remained an exception to the rule. She was barely ever portrayed as having been a victim.
As recently as 2018, New York society magazine Town & Country rescinded its invitation to her to attend its annual philanthropy summit when it learned that Clinton would also be coming. It was clear whose blushes the organisers wanted to spare.
‘I was Patient Zero of internet shaming,’ she has said of her treatment. ‘Branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo.’
Meanwhile, Clinton — the man who shamelessly told America ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman’ and who has been accused of sexual misconduct by various other women — was allowed to continue to posture as a wise world leader.
The affair lasted from 1995 to 1997, starting when Lewinsky was a 22-year-old intern and Clinton a 49-year-old president whose daughter Chelsea wasn’t much younger than Monica
To the cheers of the Democrats’ friends in the media and Hollywood, ‘Slick Willie’ was rolled out on wife Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign to lecture politicians on where they were going wrong.
Now, finally, Monica is having her say. Consistency has never been its strong point, but America’s overwhelmingly liberal and fiercely Democrat media finally appears to have got the message: it can hardly keep screaming blue murder at Republicans for overlooking Donald Trump’s tawdry history with women when it has done exactly the same over Bill Clinton.
Impeachment: American Crime Story, an enthralling ten-part dramatisation of the scandal, starts on BBC2 next week after airing to acclaim on U.S. TV.
Apart from some fine performances — the cast includes Booksmart star Beanie Feldstein as Monica, Sarah Paulson as her friend and betrayer Linda Tripp and British actor Clive Owen in heavy prosthetics as Clinton — it’s notable for having been co-produced by Lewinsky herself.
Although it’s by no means a whitewash, in a startlingly dramatic reversal Lewinsky is no longer the target of mockery but sympathy.
finally, Monica is having her say. Impeachment: American Crime Story, an enthralling ten-part dramatisation of the scandal, starts on BBC2 next week after airing to acclaim on US TV
Those involved in the new series, helmed by Hollywood wunderkind Ryan Murphy and which predictably was first envisaged after the #MeToo movement swept through the industry, have been queuing up to pay tribute to Lewinsky, who was heavily involved in the script.
Feldstein, a child during the Clinton presidency, said she remained in regular contact with her new ‘friend’ Monica by text while filming. ‘All I did every single day was think about honouring her,’ she gushed to the New York Times. ‘It remains the most tremendous responsibility I think I will ever have.’
She claimed that whenever the director asked for another take while filming a gruelling scene in which Lewinsky disintegrates under aggressive legal questioning, she would dry her eyes and do it again. ‘I was like, “It’s for Monica, of course I’m going to go again”,’ she said.
Jemima Khan, who produced the drama, says people in the UK have little idea of the extent to which Lewinsky — now 48 — was ‘demonised’ in the U.S., which was one of the reasons she wanted to make it.
‘It was very traumatic for her to relive,’ she said of Monica’s involvement in the series. ‘But you can understand how it must have felt to be her in that moment.’
Although the drama portrays Lewinsky as a guileless innocent in a world of cynical predators, she doesn’t come out of it looking completely spotless — and she insists that was never the intention.
When the scriptwriter left out an infamous scene in which Lewinsky flashed a glimpse of her thong at Clinton for fear of ‘re-traumatising Monica’, Lewinsky insisted it go in.
Lewinsky has, over the years, wobbled on whether or not she believes she was a ‘victim’ of Clinton but the series certainly portrays him as a predator
She was inexperienced with men during her affair with Clinton and comes across as painfully naïve and prone to tearful hysteria in the drama. ‘Sorry, I’m so nervous. I have a huge crush on you,’ she tells the president within seconds of first finding herself alone with him.
‘That’s really flattering because you’re beautiful — you light up the room,’ he replies unctuously. According to Impeachment, she believed such claptrap and genuinely came to believe he’d leave his wife for her.
Lewinsky has, over the years, wobbled on whether or not she believes she was a ‘victim’ of
