What is Monica Lewinsky Net Worth?
American novelist, public speaker, and anti-bullying crusader Monica Lewinsky NET worth is $1.5 million. When it was revealed that Monica Lewinsky had a relationship with then-President Bill Clinton, her life was irrevocably altered. Between 1995 and 1997, Monica was interning at the White House when the affair started. Despite not being found guilty, the scandal led to Clinton’s impeachment.
Since 2014, Lewinsky—who claims to be “the initial individual to have their image been completely ruined worldwide via the Internet”—has been engaged in anti-cyberbullying advocacy. She is a well-known advocate for the #MeToo movement. She collaborated with writer Andrew Morton to release “Monica’s Story” in 1999, reportedly receiving $500,000. In addition to designing her own line of handbags, Monica was a spokesperson for Jenny Craig and the host of the Fox dating program “Mr. Personality” in 2003.
Beanie Feldstein played Monica and Clive Owen played Bill in the FX series “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” which Monica co-produced in 2021.
Early Life and Education
On July 23, 1973, Monica Samille Lewinsky was born in San Francisco, California. Her father Bernard, an oncologist, mother Marcia, an author, and brother Michael made up her Jewish family when she was growing up in Los Angeles. In 1987, Monica’s parents separated and were married again following a contentious divorce. After attending Sinai Temple’s Sinai Akiba Academy, Beverly Hills High School, Bel Air Prep, John Thomas Dye School, and others, Lewinsky graduated in 1991.
After that, she enrolled at Santa Monica College and worked in the drama department at Beverly Hills High School. Later, she transferred to Lewis & Clark College in Portland, where she graduated in 1995 with a degree in psychology. Monica began working as an unpaid intern in Chief of Staff Leon Panetta’s office in July 1995. She was hired by the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in December of the same year. She returned to school ten years later and completed her master’s degree in psychological science at the London School of Economics in 2006.
Presidential Scandal
Lewinsky has stated that she had nine sexual encounters with Clinton between November 1995 and March 1997, but that there was no sexual activity involved. Because Monica’s supervisors felt she was spending too much time with the president, Monica was moved to the Pentagon in April 1996. She revealed her connection with the commander-in-chief to coworker Linda Tripp, who started surreptitiously recording her phone calls with Lewinsky in September 1997.
After working at the Pentagon until December 1997, Monica denied having an affair with Clinton in an affidavit she filed in connection with the Paula Jones case the following month. Tripp sent her tapes to Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel during the Clinton administration who was looking into the Clintons’ Whitewater real estate holdings, despite her best efforts to persuade Linda to lie under oath.
Tripp advised Lewinsky to keep any gifts he had given her and talked her out of having a blue dress dry-cleaned that showed proof of an intimate relationship with Clinton. Under oath and at a news conference in January 1998, Clinton denied having sex with Monica Lewinsky; however, once Starr obtained the blue dress, the president backed down and acknowledged having “a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not acceptable.” Both Lewinsky and Clinton provided testimony to a grand jury, and the Office of the Independent Counsel gave Monica transactional immunity.
Career
Monica Lewinsky received $1 million from the international rights to her 1999 Barbara Walters interview on “20/20,” which attracted 70 million viewers. To this day, the interview remains the second most-watched on television history, only surpassed by Oprah Winfrey’s 1993 interview with Michael Jackson. Monica made two skits as a guest on “Saturday Night Live” on May 8, 1999. She began filming advertisements for Jenny Craig, Inc. in January 2000. Lewinsky signed a $1 million advertising contract with the diet company, contingent on her losing at least 40 pounds in six months. By appointing Monica as their spokesperson, the corporation stirred up controversy. In April of that year, they terminated her campaign, paying her only $300,000 of the $1 million they had pledged. In 2000, Monica was a guest on “The Tom Green Show” and hosted “Monica’s Postcards,” a television program on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom.
During her 2002 appearance on HBO’s “Monica in Black and White,” Lewinsky was able to address the public and present her version of events. She was the host of the reality television show “Mr. Personality” in 2003. She also had appearances on “The View,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “V Graham Norton.” After relocating to London in 2005, Monica remained hidden from the public eye for almost ten years. However, in 2014, she started contributing to Vanity Fair, made an appearance in the National Geographic Channel special “The 90s: The Last Great Decade,” and addressed cyberbullying at the “Forbes” magazine “30 Under 30” event.
In March 2015, Lewinsky delivered a TED talk on the topic. Three months later, she spoke about harassment at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and became an ambassador and strategic advisor for the anti-bullying group Bystander Revolution. The book “Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate,” written by Sue Scheff and Melissa Schorr, had a foreword written by Monica in 2017. In 2019, Monica talked about public shaming on “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
The third series of Ryan Murphy’s “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” which centers on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, was produced by Monica. Fall 2020 saw the start of filming for the show, which made its premiere in fall 2021.
Personal Life
After the affair, Monica claimed to have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and that knitting had helped her deal with the unwanted attention from the media. Her passion for design inspired her to create The Real Monica, Inc. in 1999 and produce handbags that retailers including Henri Bendel and Fred Segal carried. Lewinsky has since moved to New York City, London, Portland, and Los Angeles. She has also lived in Los Angeles. From 2005 until 2014, she was mainly kept out of the public eye by writing an essay for “Vanity Fair” titled “Shame and Survival,” and she started contributing online to the magazine.
Towards the end of 2021, Lewinsky disclosed to PEOPLE magazine that she is single and that “if anybody has earned a right to have their romantic life private, it’s me.” As of right now, she lives in San Francisco, California.
