NEWSMonica Lewinsky Nervously Cracks Joke About Bill Clinton Affair in Rare Comment
Monica Lewinsky laughed off a question that referenced her scandalous affair with Bill Clinton.
April 24 2026, Updated 2:12 p.m. ET
Monica Lewinsky was caught in an awkward moment when her affair with former President Bill Clinton was referenced on stage.
Lewinsky, 52, appeared on a panel titled "The Fluency Gap in Women's Wealth" alongside Mika Brzezinski and Racquel Oden at the 1 Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif., on Thursday, April 23, when she was asked, "If you had to think about something that you would do different, knowing what you know now, what would that be?"
Monica Lewinsky Laughed Off Bill Clinton Affair in Awkward Moment
Monica Lewinsky's affair with Bill Clinton was referenced during a recent event in West Hollywood.
The former White House intern took a long sip from a water bottle before awkwardly looking off stage and asking, "Oh ... wait, we're talking about finances, right?" per a video obtained by a news outlet.
In a separate question, Lewinsky was asked whether she had ever felt "wronged" in her career or cast as a "villain" for being a woman in a situation where a man might have been praised.
"I definitely feel that being a woman had so much to do with what my experience was. I think also being a woman who didn't necessarily look like the person someone assumes would be in a situation like that," she replied.
Monica Lewinsky Called Out Unfair Treatment
Monica Lewinsky was 21 years old when her affair with Bill Clinton began.
Lewinsky pointed out that terms like "s--- shaming" and "fat shaming" didn't exist back then, adding, "So I don't know if Jay Leno would have made as many jokes in late night had I been a man."
"Because it becomes so much about how you look," she continued.
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Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton's Affair Rocked the Nation
Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton had an affair from 1995 to 1997.
Lewinsky was just 21 years old when she landed an unpaid internship at the White House in 1995. A few months into the job, she began a s------ relationship with Clinton, 79, and details of their tryst were later revealed through secretly recorded tapes made by Linda Tripp, per CNN.
The affair rocked 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.
Monica Lewinsky Often Speaks About Unfair Scrunity She Faced
Monica Lewinsky called the affair with the former president a 'gross abuse of power.'
Nearly 30 years after the affair, Lewinsky, now an activist and public speaker, began to speak out about the unfair scrutiny she faced compared to Clinton.
"I haven’t spoken to him in almost 30 years, and I don’t know what his internal landscape is. I think he escaped a lot more than I did," she revealed earlier this year. "That doesn’t mean I didn’t make mistakes, that I didn’t make wrong choices, that my behavior didn’t hurt other people. But at the heart of it was a gross abuse of power."
