Monica Samille Lewinsky was born in San Francisco, California, on July 23, 1973.
Monica Lewinsky, now 40, was raised in the affluent neighborhoods of Brentwood and Beverly Hills, in Southern California. Her father, Bernard Lewinsky, is an oncologist, and her mother, Marcia Kaye Vilensky, is an author who publishes under the name Marcia Lewis. The Lewinskys divorced in 1988.
After graduating from college, Monica Lewinsky took an internship and then a job at the White House. During the period from mid-1995 to 1997, Monica Lewinsky was involved in a s**ual relationship with then President Bill Clinton. Her taped conversations with Bill Clinton, and subsequent testimony, led to a media frenzy and a political firestorm.
Monica Lewinsky was raised Jewish and attended Sinai Akiba Academy and the John Thomas Dye School in her younger years. She graduated from Bel Air Prep (now Pacific Hills School) in 1991 and attended Santa Monica College while working for the drama department at Beverly Hills High School.
She also began an affair with Andy Bleiler, her married high school drama instructor, around this time. She enrolled at Lewis & Clark College after completing her two-year degree. She graduated with a degree in psychology in 1995.
Through a family friend, Monica Lewinsky secured an internship in the White House office of Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. After her internship ended, Monica Lewinsky accepted a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
She was involved in a romantic relationship with President Bill Clinton between the winter of 1995 and March 1997. The relationship involved nine encounters, some in the Oval Office.
Monica Lewinsky was transferred to the Pentagon in 1997. She confided in an older coworker, Linda Tripp, about her relationship with Bill Clinton. Shortly thereafter, Linda Tripp began secretly recording Monica Lewinsky’s conversations with the president.
Bill Clinton was already burdened with a history of s**ual misconduct allegations, and in 1997, lawyers working on the civil lawsuit filed by Arkansas state employee Paula Jones heard rumors of Monica Lewinsky’s relationship with the president.
Monica Lewinsky submitted a false affidavit denying the affair. It was at this point that Linda Tripp handed over her tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. President Bill Clinton denied the affair under oath.
News of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair broke in January 1998 and immediately dominated the media. Monica Lewinsky spent weeks in hiding. She later reported that she had spent much of this stressful period knitting. After Kenneth Starr obtained a blue dress of Lewinsky’s stained with Bill Clinton’s se**n, the president admitted to an inappropriate relationship.
Monica Lewinsky’s affair with Bill Clinton made her a pop-culture star.
A Barbara Walters interview in which Monica Lewinsky apologized to the Clintons drew record ratings. She also cooperated with Andrew Morton on a 1999 biography titled Monica’s Story.
Monica Lewinsky experimented with a number of career paths after the scandal. She designed a handbag line, promoted the Jenny Craig weight-loss system and appeared as a television correspondent and host.
In 2002, Monica Lewinsky took audience questions during the taping of the HBO special Monica in Black and White.
Eager to escape the spotlight, Monica Lewinsky moved to London, England, in 2005.
In 2006, she graduated from the London School of Economics with a master’s degree in social psychology.
In 2013, some of Monica Lewinsky’s clothing and personal affects were put up for auction. The items, which had been submitted to the Kenneth Starr investigation in the 1990s, included a black negligee and a letter signed by President Bill Clinton.
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