Monica Lewinsky said that former President Clinton “should want to apologize” to her for the affair they had in the 1990s while she was a 22-year-old White House intern and he was the 49-year-old commander in chief.
Lewinsky wrote in Vanity Fair on Tuesday that she was “disappointed for” Clinton after he said earlier this year that he didn’t owe her a private apology.
{mosads}“What feels more important to me than whether I am owed or deserving of a personal apology is my belief that Bill Clinton should want to apologize,” Lewsinky wrote. “I’m less disappointed by him, and more disappointed for him. He would be a better man for it … and we, in turn, a better society.”
Clinton was asked by NBC’s Craig Melvin in June if, in light of the “Me Too” movement, the former president felt like he owed Lewinsky an apology.
“I have never talked to her,” Clinton said. “But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.”
Lewinsky acknowledged in Vanity Fair that he did apologize publicly in 1998. She also did.
“My first public words after the scandal — uttered in an interview with Barbara Walters on March 3, 1999 — were an apology directly to Chelsea and Mrs. Clinton,” Lewinsky wrote.
Lewinsky also wrote that those would be the words she would say to Clinton’s wife, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, if they crossed paths today.
“And if I were to see Hillary Clinton in person today, I know that I would summon up whatever force I needed to again acknowledge to her — sincerely — how very sorry I am,” Lewinsky wrote.
Hillary Clinton faced backlash last month after saying her husband “absolutely” should not have resigned following the affair.
“It wasn’t an abuse of power?” CBS’s Tony Dokoupil asked during an October interview, to which Clinton said, “No. No.”
Dokoupil continued to press Clinton, saying, “There are people who look at the incidents of the ’90s and they say, ‘A president of the United States cannot have a consensual relationship with an intern; the power imbalance is too great.’”
“Who was an adult,” Clinton said, then pivoted to a discussion of the multiple sexual misconduct allegations against President Trump.
Lewinsky has spoken publicly about the onslaught of attention, criticism and abuse she faced from the tabloids and the media after the affair came to light. She has since become an anti-bullying advocate.
She opened up in Vanity Fair about participating in a new documentary series about the Bill Clinton impeachment proceedings.
Lewinsky, who is a contributor to the magazine, wrote that she “agonized” over whether to participate but decided she could “help ensure that what happened to me never happens to another young person in our country again.”
“The Clinton Affair” premieres Sunday on A&E.