Monica Lewinsky didn’t shy away from sharing her thoughts about a forthcoming HLN special titled The Monica Lewinsky Scandal. The 44-year-old author took to Twitter on Tuesday, November 28, to offer her insight on the name.
“Fixed it for you. You’re welcome,” the former White House intern captioned a screenshot of an article promoting the two-hour special airing on Sunday, December 2, at 9 p.m. ET. on CNN’s sister network. The Monica: Her Story author replaced the title with her own correction, suggesting it be called The Starr Investigation or The Clinton Impeachment instead.
Lewinsky received a great deal of support on Twitter following her Tweet on Tuesday.
❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/EgplwO1XpY
— Kimberly Burns (@kimberlyburnspr) November 28, 2017
You have been such an inspiration to me on my journey from victim to advocate for online hate and cyberbullying prevention. Please keep smiling and stay positive. You are admired and appreciated by many people.
— Lisa-Michelle Kucharz (@lmkucharz) November 28, 2017
You're fierce and you're strong @MonicaLewinsky 💪🏽
— Salim (@SLMSHSH) November 28, 2017
President Barack Obama’s former aide, Alyssa Mastromonaco, also backed Lewinsky on Twitter while using the hashtag, “#IStandWithMonica.”
As previously reported, Lewinsky engaged in a sexual affair with then-President Clinton while she was an intern in 1998. Lewinsky has since spoken out about being publicly shamed and ridiculed for years after the news of the relationship went public.
“I felt like every layer of my skin and my identity were ripped off of me in ’98 and ’99,” the fashion designer told the Guardian in April 2016. “It’s a skinning of sorts. You feel incredibly raw and frightened. But I also feel like the shame sticks to you like tar.”
While giving a TED Talk in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2015, Lewinsky further opened up about the scandal and revealed that it will always affect her. “Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of my mistake, and I regret that mistake deeply,” she said at the time. “In 1998, after having been swept up in an improbable romance, I was then swept into the eye of a political, legal, and media maelstrom like we had never seen before … I lost my reputation and my dignity. I lost my sense of self.”
Although Bill and Hillary Clinton have refrained from publicly supporting Lewinsky in the past, their view on the affair has changed as numerous allegations of sexual assault against men in Hollywood have surfaced in recent months.
Hillary’s communication director Jennifer Palmieri, who also worked for Bill’s administration, spoke out about the repercussions of the affair during an interview with MSNBC earlier this month. “Monica Lewinsky was my intern and the relationship the president had with her was very inappropriate,” Palmieri said. “It was a consensual relationship, but he was the President of the United States and she was a 24-year-old intern — that is taking advantage of a power dynamic on a historic scale.”
