Monica Lewinsky’s Parents Discuss The Clinton Cheating Scandal

Monica Lewinsky’s parents, Bernard Lewinsky and Marcia Lewis, gave a rare account of their take on the infamous Clinton scandal. A&E is broadcasting a six-part series called The Clinton Affair featuring interviews from Monica herself as well as her family. According to the Huffington Post, Monica’s parents knew nothing regarding their daughter, a White House intern, and her involvement with the then President of the United States. While the family had been given tours of the White House and had met the president personally, they suspected nothing of an affair. Lewinsky’s parents did deem their interaction with Clinton to be rather “strange” and overly friendly but wrote it off thinking that was simply Clinton’s personality.

Beginning in 1995, the Lewinsky-Clinton affair lasted two years but wasn’t exposed to the public until 1998. Bill Clinton was 49 while Monica Lewinsky was 22. A trusted friend of Monica had recorded phone calls in which Monica detailed the affair, and later released them to the authorities.

Who Gets to Live in Victimville?
my latest for @VanityFair on apologies, grief + why i participated in #TheClintonAffair docuseries. https://t.co/y645OPeIbP

— Monica Lewinsky (she/her) (@MonicaLewinsky) November 13, 2018

When the news broke about her involvement with the president, Monica was grilled by the FBI. She claims the FBI threatened her by saying they planned to prosecute her mother for actions Monica had discussed in what she thought were private phone calls. Monica’s mother, Marcia Lewis, traveled to Washington D.C. as soon as she heard the news in order to be with her daughter. “We were both very, very frightened,” Lewis said. “Monica was distraught, she kept repeating ‘I just want to die. I just want to die.'” Though Lewis said she comforted her daughter by telling her it would all work out alright, she didn’t believe the words herself.

Bernard Lewinsky recalled the moment his wife told her that his daughter was in a very bad situation. “She said Monica was in trouble, did I know anything about her and the president? And I said, ‘What, no, I don’t know anything. What are you talking about, ‘” he said.

It would take years for the family to wrap their heads around the affair that changed their lives for good and almost led to the impeachment of a United States president. Now Monica looks back at her past self and says she hates the way she allowed herself to be manipulated and made to feel insecure.

“I had this nagging insecurity ? maybe he just did all of these things the last six months because he was trying to keep me quiet during the election. ‘How stupid am I, that I believed this that I bought this,’ I felt so deflated and so desperate.”