Ever since the release of Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” the internet has been abuzz with thoughtful commentary and, course, hilarious memes related to the double album. Monica Lewinsky, who has never been one to shy away from controversy, jumped onto the Swift trend, posting a Taylor-inspired meme to her social media on Wednesday that proves can laugh about her past.
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Lewinsky Pokes Fun At Herself On Social Media
Using the lyrics, “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me,” from Swift’s song, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me,” Lewinsky cheekily posted a photo of the White House. Savage, right?
Others have jumped on the trend, posting photos of things like Seattle Grace Hospital from “Grey’s Anatomy,” or Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment from “Sex and the City,” but Lewinsky’s has raised the most eyebrows online.
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Lewinsky And Clinton’s Affair
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Of course, Lewinsky, 50, shot to notoriety in the late 90s after her affair with the president of the United States, Bill Clinton, became public. Lewinsky was just 22 years old when she landed an internship at the White House in 1995. The intern soon found herself embroiled in a torrid affair with the married commander in chief.
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Lewinsky instantly became an overnight tabloid sensation, a meme before memes where a thing. Her face was papered on magazines and newspapers, and on television screens, as the scandal threatened to take down a sitting president. Clinton, who had battled allegations of infidelity throughout his political career, even took the bold step of releasing a video to the public where he famously denied the affair and uttered the soon-to-be historic words, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
The video only added to the media storm. Clinton would later be impeached, but not removed from office, as a result of the scandal. And Lewinsky would be left trying to rebuild her life as the most famous intern in the world.
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Lewinsky Struggles In A Post-Scandal Life
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Lewinsky struggled to find her place amidst the scandal, even as time progressed and it became less of a story. She’d been made the butt of the joke, being poked fun at on late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live.” She designed a line of handbags, became a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig, and tried her hand at television hosting. However, she could not escape her role in the scandal, eventually leaving the country to pursue her education in London.
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Lewinsky’s Comeback To The Public Eye
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In 2014, Lewinsky made a return to public life as an activist and writer, penning an essay in Vanity Fair entitled, “Shame and Survival.” She has become an advocate against cyberbullying and public shaming, stemming from her experience in the scandal and the impact it had on her life. She’s written books and articles, given speeches, produced television shows, done interviews, and she’s active on social media, where she often pokes fun at herself.
Lewinsky Recalls Affair
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In 2018, Lewinsky participated in the A&E documentary, “The Clinton Affair,” where she recalled the scandal and her role in it.
“I don’t talk about this very often, and I still feel uncomfortable talking about it because I think it’s one of those things where it’s not as if it didn’t register with me that he was the president. Obviously it did. But I think in one way, the moment we were actually in the back office for the first time the truth is that I think it meant more to me that someone who other people desired, desired me. However wrong it was, however misguided, for who I was in that very moment, at 22 years old, that is how it felt,” she said in the documentary.
She also described feeling suicidal after being told she’d need to wear a wire as part of the investigation.
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“In order to cooperate and to avoid charges I would have to make phone calls, monitored phone calls they would record, and I’d have to wear a wire and go see people actually in person. The ground completely crumbled in that moment. I felt so much guilt—and I was terrified.”
“I would be hysterically crying and then I’d just shut down. And in the shut-down period I remember looking out the window and thinking the only way to fix this was to kill myself—was to jump out the window. I felt terrible. I was scared and was mortified and afraid of what this was going to do to my family. You know I was still in love with Bill at the time so I felt really responsible.”