It was the affair that shocked millions during the 90s. Monica Lewinsky made headlines when a sex scandal about her with then U.S President Bill Clinton was revealed to the public.
Now, after years since that event, Lewinsky resurfaces to announce her campaign to end cyber bullying and today’s popular culture of internet shaming. Aside from that, the brunette beauty also shared her experience when she was the one being bullied, “There was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram back then,” she said. “But there were gossip, news and entertainment websites replete with comment sections and emails which could be forwarded. Of course, it was all done on the excruciatingly slow dial up. Yet around the world this story went. A viral phenomenon that, you could argue, was the first moment of truly ‘social media’” She continued.
During Forbes’ inaugural 30 under 30 Summit in Philadelphia, the 41-year old former White House intern started her speech by bringing up the story. "I fell in love with my boss," she said. "Only, my boss was the President of the United States."
Lewinsky also shared how she dealt with the situation the moment it reached the media. “Staring at the computer screen, I spent the day shouting: ‘oh my god!’ and ‘I can’t believe they put that in’ or ‘That’s so out of context,’” she said. “And those were the only thoughts that interrupted a relentless mantra in my head: ‘I want to die.’”
After the humiliating experience, Lewinsky went from designing handbags to hosting a reality dating show. She moved to the United Kingdom soon and attended the London School of Economics gaining a master’s degree in social psychology.
In 2010, reports about Tyler Clementi, a college boy who killed himself because he was bullied and ridiculed online. Reports say that the boy’s roommate took a video of Clementi kissing another boy and streamed the video via webcam. This news was what Lewinsky sees as a ‘calling’.
“That tragedy is one of the principal reasons I am standing up here today,” said Lewinsky. “While it touched us both, my mother was unusually upset by the story, and I wondered why. Eventually it dawned on me: she was back in 1998, back to a time when I was periodically suicidal; when she might very easily have lost me; when I, too, might have been humiliated to death.”
