In The Know

Bill Clinton says he feels ‘terrible’ that ‘Lewinsky’s life was defined’ by affair

Former President Clinton addresses his role in his affair with Monica Lewinsky while she was a White House intern as part of a new documentary premiering Friday.

The Daily Mail reported that Clinton says in a Hulu documentary, “Hillary,” that he feels “terrible” about the public scrutiny Lewinsky endured following details of their sexual relationship becoming public.

“I feel terrible about the fact that Monica Lewinsky’s life was defined by it, unfairly I think,” Clinton reportedly says in the film.

“Over the years I’ve watched her trying to get a normal life back again, but you’ve got to decide how to define normal,” he added.

He also revealed, according to the Mail, that he and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, underwent “painful” marriage counseling after that affair.

“Counseling was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do but it was necessary. She deserved it, Chelsea deserved it and I needed it,” he said.

Former President Clinton said he managed personal “anxieties” by pursuing what he characterized as distractions from the pressures of the presidency, the Mail reported.

“You feel like you’re staggering around, you’ve been in a 15 round prize fight that was extended to 30 rounds and here’s something that will take your mind off it for a while, that’s what happens,” he said.

“Things I did to manage my anxieties for years. I’m a different, totally different person than I was, a lot of that stuff 20 years ago,” the former president added.

The comments are some of the most personal he has made about the Lewinsky affair since leaving office, and his first since telling NBC’s Craig Melvin in June 2018 that he did not think he owed Lewinsky a personal apology.

“No, I do not,” he told Melvin when asked if he thought he owed it to Lewinsky to reach out and apologize.

“I have never talked to her,” former President Clinton added at the time. “But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.”

“Hillary” is set to premiere Friday on Hulu and features interviews with the former 2016 Democratic nominee and her husband on her electoral loss to President Trump, among other topics.

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