Kelly Ripa Calls Monica Lewinsky a 'Gift of a Human Being' as Duo Revisits 1998 Bill Clinton Scandal: 'I Adore This Woman'

Kelly Ripa had nothing but nice things to say about her longtime friend Monica Lewinsky as the pair revisited one of the most scrutinized chapters of Lewinsky’s life.

In an episode of Ripa’s "Let’s Talk Off Camera" podcast, which was re-released on Wednesday, September 2, Lewinsky joined the host to discuss reclaiming her narrative after the intense public attention surrounding her 1998 Bill Clinton scandal.

In 1995, Lewinsky landed an unpaid internship at the White House when she was just 21 years old.

A few months into the job, she began having a sexual relationship with Clinton, with the details of their affair going public in tapes secretly recorded by Linda Tripp.

The affair shocked the nation and led to Clinton's impeachment in December 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; however, he was later acquitted and never left office.

Ripa began by introducing Lewinsky: "Our next guest was 24 years old when she endured one of the most public and painful experiences a young woman, man, person could possibly face."

"But what truly defines her isn't the scandal. It's what she's done in the aftermath. She has redefined what it means to reclaim a narrative, transforming personal trauma into public service," she continued. "...dedicated her life to changing the cultural conversation around victim blaming and online cruelty."

The mother-of-three gushed, "I adore this woman. I've known her a long time. And she's just a gift, she's a gift of a human being."

"I love her. I mean, I'm obsessed with her," chimed in one of the podcast's producers, Albert Bianchini.

"It's very funny because she was so written about, so talked about, so scrutinized, so analyzed. And yet it's funny to know her. You realize that the press, the collective, the narrative has gotten everything wrong about a person that they could possibly get wrong," Ripa added.

As the podcast went on, Lewinsky touched upon the impact the scandal had on her.

"It just blanketed everywhere...It was complicated, and I didn't have a voice...I couldn't I mean, I literally was told by my lawyers, 'You cannot speak publicly because it will put you in legal jeopardy,'" she confessed.

Ripa jumped in, "The portrayal of you versus who you are is so dichotomous. It makes no sense."

"I mean, some of it, I think some of that is also filled by maturity, right? So as I got older, right? But this idea of me having gone to Washington with an agenda or that I was stupid, you know, that was something I contended with for a long time," the now 53-year-old replied.

"Part of, you know, going to graduate school and coming out of graduate school and holding on to every textbook, I had and all these books I bought when I was there because I just thought this is some symbolism of I'm not a dumb bimbo," Lewinsky continued.

"There are all of the narratives of power, but then there are the ways that people use their power and how power shows up, and so I think that can be a lethal combination," she added.

"I sat down at some point and figured out that...I had turned down like $11 million, which was a lot of money for me. That's a lot of money," Lewinsky disclosed of rejecting interviews at the time. "And so I think there's what you turn down, there's what's coming towards you, what you have to turn down to try to be able to look yourself in the mirror, if you can."