Don’t shade Monica Lewinsky and expect her to stay silent.
The 44-year-old motivational speaker took to Twitter on Wednesday, May 9, to reveal that an event rescinded her invitation after President Bill Clinton confirmed he would go.
“Dear world: please don’t invite me to an event (esp one about social change) and — then after I’ve accepted — uninvite me because Bill Clinton then decided to attend/was invited. it’s 2018,” she wrote. “and definitely don’t try to ameliorate the situation by insulting me with an offer of an article in your mag.”
Lewinsky, who had a sexual relationship with former President Clinton in 1998 during his time in office, has been outspoken about the affair’s impact on her life. Most recently, she made a splash for blasting a forthcoming HLN special titled The Monica Lewinsky Scandal in November 2017.
The fashion designer also spoke candidly about the relationship while giving a TED Talk in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2015. “Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of my mistake and I regret that mistake deeply,” she admitted. “In 1998, after having been swept up in an improbable romance, I was then swept into the eye of a political, legal, and media maelstorm like we had never seen before … I lost my reputation and dignity. I lost my sense of self.”
She also detailed the repercussions of the affair while speaking at a Forbes magazine summit in October 2014. “I was Patient Zero. The first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the Internet. There was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram back then, but there were gossip, news and entertainment websites replete with comment sections and emails which could be forwarded,” she explained. “Of course, it was all done on the excruciatingly slow dial up. Yet around the world this story went. A viral phenomenon that, you could argue, was the first moment of truly ‘social media.’”
