Monica Lewinsky Walks Off Stage Over Bill Clinton Affair Question

The White House intern turned anti-bullying activist, Monica Lewinsky, said Tuesday she walked off during an interview in Jerusalem after she was asked “off limits” questions regarding former President Bill Clinton.

The incident happened at the Jerusalem Convention Center on Monday as Lewinsky sat down for an interview with Israeli news anchor Yonit Levi after a speech on the perils and positives of the internet. She addressed her experience with bullying and the affair with Clinton during the speech.

“I don’t think I would have felt so isolated if what happened in 1998 happened in 2018,” she said, reported the Jerusalem Post. “By and large I had been alone. Publicly alone. Abandoned most by the main figure in this crisis, who knew me well and intimately.”

After the speech, the interview with the Israeli anchor took place on the same stage. However, when Levi asked Lewinsky about Clinton’s unwillingness to personally apologize for the fallout of their affair during the 1990s, the latter abruptly rose from her seat and walked off the stage.

“Do you still expect that apology? A personal apology?" Levi, an anchor for one of Israel’s top-rated news shows, asked the 45-year-old Lewinsky, to which she said, “I’m so sorry. I’m not going to be able to do this,” and left the stage.

Lewinsky tweeted an explanation of why she chose to walk away from the stage with the caption “so here’s what happened...”

“After a talk today on the perils and positives of the internet, there was to be a 15-minute conversation to follow up on the subject of my speech (not a news interview). There were clear parameters about what we would be discussing and what we would not be. In fact, the exact question the interviewer asked first, she had put to me when we met the day prior. I said that was off limits. When she asked me it on stage, with blatant disregard for our agreement, it became clear to me I had been mislead. I left because it is more important than ever for women to stand up for themselves and not allow others to control their narrative. To the audience: I'm very sorry that this talk had to end this way,” her statement said.

The Israeli News Company, under which Levi worked, said the anchor tried his best to abide by all agreements made with Lewinsky.

"The question asked was legitimate, worthy and respectful and in no way deviated from Ms. Lewinsky's request," company spokesman Alon Shani said.

In an NBC interview in June, Clinton talked about the affair, which kicked off an investigation into the then president and finally led to his impeachment. He said he did not feel like he owed Lewinsky a personal apology as he had already apologized publically many times.

“No. I have never talked to her, but I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry,” Clinton told NBC News.

Lewinsky was away from the public sphere for years till earlier this year. Re-emerging as a public speaker and an activist who stood against bullying, she talked about the affair in March. She said the relationship was not sexual assault, but "constituted a gross abuse of power," reported CBS News.