Where Is Monica Lewinsky Now? A Look at the Activist's Life 27 Years After Bill Clinton Scandal

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Getty ; Amy Sussman/Getty

Getty ; Amy Sussman/Getty

It’s been over 25 years sinceMonica Lewinskywas thrust into the national spotlight after her affair with then-PresidentBill Clinton.

Lewinsky was fresh out of college when she met Clinton in 1995 during his first term as president of the United States. Over the next two years, the pair became intimately involved — exchanging gifts, making late-night phone calls and engaging in a sexual relationship.

“At the age of 22, I fell in love with my boss. And at the age of 24, I learned the devastating consequences,” Lewinsky shared in a 2015TED Talkthat has since been viewed more than 21 million times.

In 1998, Lewinsky and Clinton’s affair was made public following a series of legal investigations, several recorded conversations and one conservative news report. Overnight, Lewinsky’s life was turned upside down, and she was suddenly the subject of intense media and online scrutiny.

But in recent years, Lewinsky has returned to the spotlight — this time in the hopes of helping others who have been shamed and cyberbullied. She has successfully rebranded herself as a writer and activist,speaking out against online harassment. In 2021, she started her own production company, aiming to give a platform to others who have been silenced, and in 2025, she announced she was starting her own podcast,Reclaiming,during an appearance onToday.

Read ahead to learn more about Monica Lewinsky’s life following the scandal, and where she is today.

What happened between Lewinsky and Clinton?

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By November of that year, Lewinsky had accepted a paying job in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, and around the same time, she began a sexual relationship with Clinton. According to independent counselKen Starr, who had been investigating Clinton at the time, the pair had 10 sexual encounters over the next two years, during which they communicated often and presented each other with small gifts.

“At the time — at least from my point of view — it was an authentic connection, with emotional intimacy, frequent visits, plans made, phone calls and gifts exchanged. In my early 20s, I was too young to understand the real-life consequences and too young to see that I would be sacrificed for political expediency. I look back now, shake my head in disbelief, and wonder: what was I — what were we — thinking?” Lewinsky later wrote inVanity Fair.

In April 1996, Lewinsky was transferred from her job in the White House to a public affairs position at the Pentagon as some of her superiors began to grow concerned she was spending too much time with Clinton. Despite the transfer, the pair continued to have sexual encounters until Clinton ended the affair in May 1997, after which they remained in contact.

How was Lewinsky and Clinton’s affair made public?

During Lewinsky’s final visit to the White House that month, Clinton allegedly encouraged her to be “evasive” with investigators, according toCNN. Her lawyer later said that she could deny the affair in an affidavit to avoid being deposed in Jones’ case. In January 1998, Lewinsky officially signedthe affidavit, claiming not to have had a sexual relationship with Clinton.

Shortly after, Tripp brought her recordings to Starr, who had been investigating Clinton’s involvement in an allegedly fraudulent real estate deal. The Justice Department permitted Starr to investigate Lewinsky under the possibility of perjury, witness tampering and obstruction of justice in the Jones case — and soon after, the FBI questioned Lewinsky.

One day later, on Jan. 17, 1998, Clinton denied the affair during a sworn deposition as part of the Jones lawsuit — which would later play a role in his impeachment trial. That same day, the Drudge Report, a conservative news aggregator,broke the newsof Clinton and Lewinsky’s affair, reporting thatNewsweekopted not to publish their article exposing the scandal. Founder Matt Drudge has never explained how he found out about the affair.

In the days that followed, Clinton publicly denied his relationship with Lewinsky, delivering his now-infamous line, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."

How did the public react to the news of their affair?

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News of Lewinsky and Clinton’s romantic relationship dominated the media. Lewinsky spent weeks hiding from paparazzi and the public at her mother’s apartment; her lawyer only allowed her to leave for doctor’s appointments and the occasional supervised outing.

Looking back on the experienceduring her TED Talk, Lewinsky said she was “swept up” into a news cycle that had never been seen before. She recalled being “branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore” and “bimbo.” She noted that people who spoke about her seemed to forget she was a human with feelings too.

“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,” she wrote, adding, “I have never actually attempted suicide, but I had strong suicidal temptations several times during the investigations and during one or two periods after.”

What did Lewinsky do after the scandal?

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“Quite frankly, the name is what attracts people to the product, but what’s going to satisfy the customer is that it’s a great product,” she toldThe New York Timesin 2000. “I don’t want people to think I’m taking advantage of this.”

She later signed on to host the reality dating showMr. Personalityand appeared as herself onSaturday Night Live.Lewinsky also took on a gig as a spokesperson for the dieting companyJenny Craig. But Lewinsky’s decision to face the public didn’t come without controversy. Some claimed she was trying to capitalize on her notoriety — onCNNin 2000, she toldLarry Kingshe was still trying to pay off her enormous legal bills.

“Apparently, others talking about me is okay; me speaking out for myself is not. I turned down offers that would have earned me more than $10 million, because they didn’t feel like the right thing to do. Over time, the media circus quieted down, but it never quite moved on, even as I attempted to move on,” she later wrote inVanity Fair.

What happened when Lewinsky left the spotlight for a decade?

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Lewinsky eventually stepped away from the spotlight. In 2005, she moved to England and enrolled at the London School of Economics.

“I moved to England to study, to challenge myself, to escape scrutiny and to reimagine my identity. My professors and fellow students at the London School of Economics were wonderful — welcoming and respectful. I had more anonymity in London, perhaps due to the fact that I spent most of my waking hours in class or buried in the library,” Lewinsky recalled.

In 2006, she graduated with a master’s degree in social psychology, hoping it would be a “gateway to a more normal life.” Over the next few years, she moved around the U.S., living in Los Angeles, New York and Portland, Oregon.

She applied to jobs relating to “creative communication” and “branding,” with an emphasis on charity campaigns, to no avail. Companies often worried about her history or wanted her to be a public spokesperson for the organization. She eventually realized that “traditional employment” would not be an option for her.

Despite financially struggling, Lewinsky stayed away from the spotlight, continually denying press requests and putting off opportunities — partially in fear of interfering withHillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Why did Lewinsky embrace being a public figure again?

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In 2014, Lewinsky ultimately made a return to the public eye. After almost a decade of laying low, she wanted to use her platform for good and to help others who had also experienced bullying.

What does Lewinsky do for a living now?

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In 2014, Lewinsky made her return to the public eye with an essay titled “Shame and Survival” inVanity Fair— her debut as a contributing editor for the magazine. For the first time in more than a decade, she opened up about her past and expressed regret for all that had transpired.

“I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened,” she wrote.

In 2019, Lewinsky signed on as a producer onImpeachment: American Crime Story,Ryan Murphy’s series chronicling her affair with Clinton and his impeachment trial. While she had previously turned down many offers to tell her story, she toldVarietythat the idea of working with Murphy was “very exciting.” Lewinsky became the main consultant for the show, and starBeanie Feldsteinsaid that Lewinskyapproved “every word” of the script.

“Obviously I have personal and selfish reasons, all sorts of reasons, for having participated inImpeachment, but the larger goal is how tomove the conversation forward, a sort of collective shift — whether it’s a sex scandal or not, and the kind of blame that was put on a young person and the kind of erasing and turning a blind eye to where responsibility really sat," she told PEOPLE.

In 2021, Lewinsky founded her own production company, Alt Ending Productions, and signed a first-look deal for scripted dramas with 20th Television. Lewinsky explained that with the company, she hopes to share the “voices or perspectives” of people that audiences “historically don’t hear from or see.”

Most recently, she was an executive producer on the Max documentary15 Minutes of Shame, an investigation into public shaming and cyber-harassment that put a spotlight on those who have experienced it firsthand.

In February 2024, Lewinsky became the face of Reformation’s “You’ve Got the Power” campaign at 50, hoping to build voter registration awareness. Lewinsky posed for photos in the brand’s new workwear collection, which will launch with a new voting hub online.

“Voting is using our voice to be heard and it’s the most defining — and powerful — aspect of democracy,” Lewinsky said in press release. “Voting is always important, but the stakes are especially high this year with voter frustration and apathy threatening to meaningfully impact turnout.”

In February 2025, Lewinsky announced during an appearance onTodaythat she’s launching her own podcast calledReclaiming,which features her talking about her own journey and speaking with celebrity guests and friends about theirs.

“I definitely think what I went through … it lets people know I’m not going to judge them,” she said.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go tosuicidepreventionlifeline.org.

source: people.com