Monica Lewinsky Looks Back at the Fat Shaming Comments She Endured During Clinton Scandal

Monica Lewinsky is getting more and more candid these days about what it was like for her to go through the public scrutiny of being involved with former President Clinton. She’s not just doing it through her role as an executive producer for the American Crime Story series. She actually recently sat down with PEOPLE to talk about what it is really like for her to see herself in cartoons in newspapers being ridiculed. Lewinsky hints that having to deal with such scrutiny was potentially the hardest part of the entire process.  

Even after 20 plus years since her face was on the news and in the papers literally every day Lewinsky says that the insults still hurt. Plus, she recalls that at the time there was nothing there to really protect her from those insults. Perhaps going through an affair scandal these days would be a much different experience. Lewinsky mentions, 

"We didn't even have words like 'fat shaming' or 'slut shaming' then. It was incredibly painful.”she would  go on to say, "I still don't like having my photo taken professionally,"

Lewinsky even had some words of sympathy for the other women involved in the scandal including Hillary Clinton. She mentioned that on her part having people not believe that she could be having an affair with the President because of her weight was tough on her confidence. Which, she recalls, wasn't at an all-time high at that point regardless. Monica admits that men go through body shaming, but not as much as women saying, 

"The misogyny and making fun of people's appearance: Bill got it sometimes, a few jokes about pudge and a McDonald's burger — and the same happened to Trump — but not to any degree that it happened to the women." 

For the other producers of the show and for Lewinsky herself the idea wasn’t just to tell her side of the story. Monica actually claims that a lot of different cases could find themselves reflected in the show. Where a person of power can get away with certain things that other societies potentially can’t. She mentioned though that she agreed to participate in the show because she felt that the people involved shared a common goal. She details, 

"My goal with the show, and I think that was with the others as well, was to bring as much humanity as possible. Having had the experiences I've had of being publicly humiliated, I'm more sensitive than most. I advocated on behalf of many characters at different points in places that I thought we could pull back."

Plenty of people have essentially accused Lewinsky of continuing to try and to hurt the Clinton’s in telling her side of the story. As we mentioned before though, she showed sympathy towards Hilary Clinton being body shamed in the aftermath of the scandal. She also mentioned that coming on board as executive producer for the show wasn’t a decision that she took lightly. Mainly because she knows the effects that her decision can have on the families involved.

“I recognize that every time — and I know it because I have been on the other end. And anytime anybody in this constellation of people tells their story, it's hard for other people. And whether it is the small group, or the families, I recognize that."