Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American businesswoman best known for a sex scandal concerning her affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton while working as an intern at the White House.
Lewinsky graduated with a Psychology degree from Lewis and Clark College in 1995, and afterwards she worked at the White House during Clinton's first term.
While at the White House she had a short-term sexual relationship with the President. Clinton and Lewinsky both denied that the relationship involved sexual intercourse. The news of this affair, and the resulting investigation, and impeachment, became known as the Lewinsky scandal.
Confidant Linda Tripp was secretly recording her telephone conversations with Lewinsky regarding the affair with Clinton. Later, Tripp would give the tapes to Kenneth Starr (independent prosecutor), and these would divert him from an investigation of Whitewater.
Lewinsky admitted that her relationship with Clinton involved oral sex in the Oval Office. This was documented in the Starr report, which eventually led to President Clinton's impeachment on the allegation of perjury regarding the affair.
Clinton denied having sexual intercourse with Lewinsky while under oath in an unrelated trial. In a nationally televised clip from a White House news conference, Clinton later claimed "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." The line later became a punchline for its technical verity but deceptive nature, based on one's definition of "sexual relations." In addition, he stated "There is no sexual relationship" with Lewinsky, a statement which he later said was truthful depending on one's definition of "is." Under pressure from Starr on August 19, 1998, who Clinton learned had obtained from Lewinsky a blue dress with Clinton's semen stain, Clinton apologized for misleading the American people, and he admitted that he had had an "inappropriate" relationship with Lewinsky. Clinton denied having committed perjury because oral sex was not sexual relations.
Clinton soon faced impeachment hearings in the U.S. Congress. Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives but not convicted in the Senate, so he was not removed from office. Interestingly, Clinton saw his job approval ratings among the American people increase during and after the scandal.
The affair, and its sordid details, led to a period of cultural celebrity for Lewinsky; as an unlikely sex symbol, and as a younger-generation nexus of a political storm that was both lighthearted, and extremely serious at the same time. Some mild use of the name "Lewinsky" still exists as a term for oral sex, though Lewinsky references and jokes have long cooled in the public interest.
By her own account, Lewinsky survived the intense media attention by knitting. She now runs her own business, selling her own brand of handbags. She was also the host of the short-lived reality television dating program called Mr. Personality.
On March 4, 1999 Monica's Story, an authorized biography detailing her affair with Bill Clinton, went on sale in the United States.
