Monica Samille Lewinsky, born July 23, 1973, is an American activist whose life was irrevocably altered by her affair with President Bill Clinton during her time as a White House intern from 1995 to 1997. The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal thrust her into the international spotlight, making her a household name and a subject of intense public scrutiny. Beyond the political ramifications, the scandal had a profound personal impact on Lewinsky, particularly concerning her body image and weight.
Early Life and Body Image
Growing up in an affluent family in Southern California, Lewinsky attended the same exclusive private school as Tori Spelling. However, she experienced early instances of social exclusion related to her weight. According to Andrew Morton’s 1999 biography, Monica’s Story, Lewinsky was excluded from a classmate's birthday party, leading to feelings of rejection and isolation. Her classmates were already teasing her about not being invited - a shift from their usual barbs about the little girl’s weight. Rejection stings. Little Monica locked herself in her bedroom, laid face down on her floral bedspread, alternating fists taking punches at her pillow. She wrote I hate Tori one hundred times in her diary. In the class photo, she cut out the eyes of all of the kids who called her Big Mac.
These experiences contributed to a lifelong struggle with body image and weight management.
The Pressure to Be Thin
Like many young girls, Lewinsky felt the pressure to conform to societal ideals of thinness. At summer camp when I was nine the boys called me Curdled Milk. At fourteen, I’d spent enough time cycling through skipped meals, Weight Watchers, and the occasional purge to become a size that boys were allowed to consider desirable. I started at a new school that year, a private academy known for its debate team. Arriving in this new, thinner body was as exciting as it was confusing. I wasn’t sure if I was small enough yet and was awaiting confirmation from others - especially boys. In the first week, one of my classmates asked me on a date after science class. Another told his friend to tell my new friend to tell me that he liked me.
The desire to be accepted and liked, particularly by boys, fueled her pursuit of weight loss.
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Fat Camp and Weight Watchers
Monica was thirteen the first summer she went to a fat camp. I imagine Monica with a selection of brochures laid out on her parents’ dining room table. She put as much thought into how to become smaller as she did into the writing of her frequently praised school essays. She presented her case to her mother, articulate and persuasive, but her mother didn’t need much convincing. She too wanted Monica to be smaller. They decided on one in Santa Barbara. The brochure showed young teenagers laughing and having fun, playing volleyball on the beach. Monica lost 22 pounds that summer at the fat camp.
The first time I went to a Weight Watchers meeting with my mom I was nine. I asked my mom to buy me a Weight Watchers membership when I was thirteen.
Public Scrutiny and Body Shaming
The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal subjected Lewinsky to intense public scrutiny, with her weight becoming a frequent target of criticism and ridicule. On the side of Special Counsel Ken Starr were those seeking to expose what they saw as a philandering corrupt president who, with the help of his repugnantly ambitious wife, would ruin America if left unchecked. Publishing explicit details about the precise sexual acts that a 22-year-old Monica had engaged in was considered both justified and necessary to nail the Clintons. It was also, conveniently, titillating and entertaining. On the other side were those who sought to defend their progressive presidential hero. To them, Monica was an immoral temptress, a woman whose appetite for sex must be matched by her appetite for food as evidenced in the excesses of her body. A woman who said too much to too many. To everyone, she was entertainment, a punchline - even to those tasked with defending her.
Political pundits, cultural critics and feminist commentators have started to acknowledge all the ways we got it wrong. Maybe a 22-year-old intern wasn’t deserving of such public ridicule, regardless of what she looked like or what she did or whom she told. Our collective re-examination of the Clinton-Lewinsky story has coincided with broader discussions about slut shaming and fat shaming (or sex positivity and body positivity, depending on your framing). In a way, this reckoning turned Monica into a martyr for girls with big appetites. Big appetites for sex. For food. For success.
The media often focused on her appearance, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and contributing to a culture of body shaming.
Read also: Diet and Fitness: Monica Bellucci
Jenny Craig Spokesperson
In an effort to reclaim her narrative and address her weight struggles, Lewinsky became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig in 2000. Lewinsky, the former White House intern at the center of the scandal that led to President Clinton’s impeachment trial, claims to have lost 31 pounds so far on the Jenny Craig plan, which she began in the summer. Lewinsky’s current weight and her target weight were not disclosed. Officials at the financially struggling Jenny Craig were not concerned that Lewinsky, now 26, gained notoriety as the woman who nearly brought down the presidency, company spokesman Brian Luscomb said Tuesday. “It’s the best way to share the stories of our successful clients,” Luscomb said.
The commercials are part of a $7.2 million advertising campaign and were scheduled to begin airing Sunday during Brian Boitano’s skating special and run through March. Lewinsky is enrolled in a program similar to other clients in which she regularly visits with a diet consultant, Luscomb said. He did not know how close Lewinsky was to reaching her desired weight. “She’s got personal goals she hopes to achieve. But those goals are very personal and she’s not revealed what they are,” he said. Terms of Lewinsky’s contract were not disclosed. In one spot, she talks about her previous attempts at dieting. “I mean, if it was stand on your head, I’ve tried it,” she says. “If it was eat only grapefruit, I’ve tried it. Magic diet pills, I’ve tried it.”
However, the partnership was short-lived, as some Americans tried to organize a boycott of advertisers on the show, to protest Lewinsky's capitalizing on her notoriety.
Reclaiming Her Story and Activism
In recent years, Lewinsky has emerged as an anti-bullying activist and public speaker, using her experiences to advocate for a more compassionate and understanding society. Lewinsky wrote an essay in the March 2018 issue of Vanity Fair in which she did not directly explain why she used the #MeToo hashtag in October. She did write that looking back at her relationship with Bill Clinton, although it was consensual, because he was 27 years older than she and in a position with a lot more power than she had, in her opinion the relationship constituted an "abuse of power" on Clinton's part. In September 2018, Lewinsky spoke at a conference in Jerusalem. Following her speech, she sat for a Q&A session with the host, journalist Yonit Levi. The first question Levi asked was whether Lewinsky thinks that Clinton owes her a private apology. Lewinsky refused to answer the question, and walked off the stage. She later tweeted that the question was posed in a pre-event meeting with Levi, and Lewinsky told her that such a question was off limits.
She has also addressed the issue of body shaming and the importance of self-acceptance.
Read also: Weight Loss Journey: Monica Garcia
Monica's Food Diary
More recently, a five-day food diary by Monica Lewinsky gained attention for its unconventional and seemingly uninhibited choices. Monica Lewinsky in 2022. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images) This morning, while scrolling the news, I encountered something truly unhinged: a five-day food diary by Monica Lewinsky, who is currently doing the media rounds to promote her new podcast. For my whole life, I’ve apparently been gaslit into believing that a healthy diet makes us beautiful and vibrant and productive, but now I am no longer sure-because here is Monica, my favorite White House intern turned anti-bullying crusader turned winking upscale office-wear model, eating every single day like an absolute psycho. I raise the oddness of her diet not to shame her but to celebrate her boldness, the audacity of her stomach lining, her truly visionary culinary decisions, and her cryptic and alluring verses about pizza.
The diary included items such as coffee with sprinkles, a "Weird Salad" (grilled asparagus and chopped strawberries tossed in soy sauce and balsamic), and a variety of sugary treats.
Coffee with Sprinkles
Monica Lewinsky is a coffee drinker. She does not take it black. “I’m fussy about my coffee, but not in a bougie way,” she writes. “I like to mix two different Starbucks VIAs: the special Christmas blend and decaf.” (She apparently stocks up over the holidays so that she has her Christmas blend year round.) Then, to her holly-jolly brew, she adds heavy cream, a dash of pumpkin spice, and-if she needs some extra cheer-a spritz of canned whipped cream. She also tops it with sprinkles. Monica refers to this, at one point, as her “special coffee concoction,” which-after one late night of work-she feels she needs “intravenously.” Is this wise? Who knows, but girl sure is productive;in addition to her podcast, she’s apparently working on a limited series for Hulu about Amanda Knox.
Love for Pizza
To prove her longtime devotion to pepperoni pizza, Monica links to a poem she wrote in grade school, which apparently made its way onto the internet in that harrowing year of her young adulthood, 1998. “Mary Oliver I am not,” remarks Monica, the patron saint of self-deprecation. Here is the full text: I am a pizza I can be a delicious lunch, dinner or breakfast, if you’re weird. I have a great deal of toppings on me I am a round and flat piece of dough with lots of toppings. I make your mouth water. I’m very good to eat, but I’m fattening! I am a mouth’s best friend. I make you say, “Yum, Yum”. I am a pizza. This poem made quite a splash in 1998. For example, JFK Jr. read snippets of it on Jay Leno’s show. “I know I’m going to rot in hell eternally for this,” he said before reading a schoolgirl’s poem on national television-but the one rotting might actually be Leno, who quipped, “It’s amazing how kids know at a young age what they’re going to do in life.”
Allegedly Met Some Vegetables
Monica is not what doctors might call a “healthy eater,” but she does seem to consume a vegetable from time to time. Apparently, one of her home-cooking specialties is a dish she calls “Weird Salad.” It’s grilled asparagus and chopped strawberries tossed in soy sauce and balsamic. And while an apple is not a vegetable, she does, at one point, eat a Cosmic Crisp. This is presumably with the sole purpose of keeping the doctor away, because…
Sugar Fiend
As you might have guessed from her coffee routine, Monica loves a sweet treat to put her on the road to success. In her food diary, she mentions Butterfingers, Starburst, sour rainbows, Baskin Robbins Peanut Butter ’N Chocolate ice cream, Rice Krispies treats, Swedish Fish, and Sour Patch Kids. Monica is also a fan of Thin Mints, which-(girl) scout’s honor-she claims to eat with chili-lime chips. (“Putting that into words, I can’t imagine a more disgusting combination, but here we are.”) Also, en route to an “appointment with my sound resonance healer,” Monica breakfasts on her “special coffee concoction” and four Tagalong cookies. As of press time, Monica Lewinsky appears to still be alive.
This seemingly carefree approach to food could be interpreted as a form of rebellion against the restrictive dieting and body shaming she experienced in the past.