From Clinton scandal to modelling stint: The reinvention of Monica Lewinsky

American activist Monica Lewinsky has turned model for a major fashion brand as part of its campaign to urge people to vote in the upcoming United States presidential elections. The 50-year-old is the face of women’s clothing brand Reformation’s latest voting initiative.

For years now, Lewinsky, the former White House intern whose affair with the then US president Bill Clinton created a political maelstrom in the late 1990s, has been taking control of her narrative. Let’s take a look at how she has reinvented herself since the saga.

What was the Clinton scandal?

In 1998, Lewinsky’s world turned upside down after her and then US president Clinton’s affair came to light. The scandal set the stage for the impeachment of the 49-year-old Democratic leader. The president initially denied his extramarital relationship before admitting to “inappropriate intimate physical contact” with the White House intern.

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Clinton was eventually acquitted by the Senate.

The incident brought global attention to 22-year-old Lewinsky who was publicly demonised and humiliated. Over the years, she has opened up about her ordeal after the news of her affair with Clinton broke.

In an interview with tech journalist Taylor Lorenz published in The Guardian last year, Lewinsky described herself as “patient zero of losing my reputation online. “I went to bed one night a private person, and the next day I was known by the entire world. That couldn’t have happened without the internet,” she said.

Speaking at a TED conference in 2015 titled ‘The Price of Shame’, the former White House intern recalled how she became a household name almost overnight and the humiliation she was subjected to by being branded “a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo, and, of course, That Woman”. The video has garnered 21 million views online.

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Betrayed by her friend and threatened jail time by FBI agents, Lewinsky, as New York Times (NYT) described, became a public “laughingstock” after the scandal reports spread on the Internet.

“I felt like every layer of my skin and my identity were ripped off of me in 1998 and 1999. It’s a skinning of sorts … the shame sticks to you like tar,” Lewinsky told The Guardian in 2016.

How Monica Lewinsky took charge of her story

Since the scandal, Lewinsky went on to earn a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. She is an anti-bullying activist and a writer.

She broke her public silence in 2015 with the TED talk and has since been vocal about her harrowing experience. Lewinsky has emerged as an advocate for women and has used her voice against cyberbullying.

Lewinsky has also spoken about Bill Clinton and how as a president he had power and influence protecting him that she did not. “I was not supported by the left. I was not supported by the right. It was a very painful and terrifying place to be,” she said to David Axelrod in a podcast interview in 2021.

In 2018, Lewinsky in her article for Vanity Fair acknowledged the former president’s “inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege” when they entered into a relationship. She told Axelrod in the 2021 podcast interview that she “hoped” Clinton’s behaviour would not be acceptable today.

After decades of being known as the intern who had an affair with Clinton, Lewinsky has forged her own identity. As CNN put it, she might be known by younger generations just as much if not more for her activism than the “sensational coverage” of her relationship with the former US president.

Monica Lewinsky turns model

Lewinsky’s latest stint as model has grabbed public attention. The activist was clicked in a variety of outfits for the “You’ve Got the Power” work wear campaign launched on Monday to urge people to vote in the November presidential elections.

She can be seen striking power poses dressed in a variety of office wear, including a scarlet top and skirt set, a black dress accompanied by a matching black belt, sweaters, a leather trench coat and so on.

“It’s a super important election year and faith in big institutions is pretty low,” Reformation says on its website. “We get it. We don’t wanna be another brand just tell you to vote, so we partnered with experts at Vote.org.”

Speaking to Elle Magazine, Lewinsky said the collaboration was in response to heightened “voter frustration” and “apathy” ahead of the election. “We all have to be reminding each other that we can’t let that get in the way of needing to vote, that that’s how we use our voice. That’s where our power is,” she told the magazine.

Last November, the political activist had called for a ban on presidential self-pardons and subjecting elected officials to mandatory retirement ages.

Lauren Cohan, Reformation’s chief creative officer, said Lewinsky was perfect for the voter-centric campaign. She said the activist had gained traction with Gen X, millennial, and Gen Z women after her 2015 TED Talk on public shaming.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, this woman is incredibly funny and smart and also a Ref babe,’ and that was the bullseye,” Cohan was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. 

Meanwhile, Lewinsky also told Elle that turning 50 last July was a “real gift”. “It was a year of acceptance. I was able to accept so much about myself and my life and where I am, and so that meant coming into 50 was great,” she said.

“I’m excited about this new decade and I’m hopeful—which, for someone with a lot of trauma, even saying that feels scary,” Lewinsky added.

With inputs from agencies