Three decades after the infamous affair with President Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, now 51, is reclaiming her voice. On the How To Fail podcast, she reflected on her past with raw honesty, describing her feelings then as “a 22 to 24-year-old woman’s love” but acknowledging the affair was “an abuse of power.”

Lewinsky recalled how the Clinton White House portrayed her as a “bimbo,” a label embraced by many, especially women. “I wasn’t dumb,” she said, “but that’s how I was painted.” After Clinton admitted to the relationship in 1998, Lewinsky became a national punchline, faced brutal media scrutiny, and battled depression.

Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she detailed the trauma of being seen as “a stalker, mentally unstable, not attractive enough.” The cost wasn’t just her reputation — it was her future. “Because of the power differential, I never should’ve been in that position.”

Lewinsky says the damage reached beyond her: “There was so much collateral damage for women of my generation.” Today, she isn’t asking for pity—just to be seen fully.

Her story reminds us to question how far we’ve really come. In the age of social media, are we still repeating the same cruel cycle—just louder?