Monica Lewinsky showed she can now laugh at one of the most scrutinized chapters of her life during a public appearance in West Hollywood on Thursday night.
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Lewinsky, who rose to global notoriety during her affair with former President Bill Clinton, spoke on a panel titled The Fluency Gap in Women's Wealth.
She appeared alongside Mika Brzezinski and Racquel Oden at HSBC's "The Financial Glow Up" event, held at the 1 Hotel in West Hollywood.
Monica Lewinsky Reflects on Past During Public Panel
During the discussion, Lewinsky was asked whether she would do anything differently in her past, given what she knows now.
The question seemed to touch on the moment everyone in the room was thinking about, and Lewinsky acknowledged it with humor.
"You're talking about finances, right?," Lewinsky said, while laughing awkwardly.
The audience joined in, as she added that the question could lead to "a lot of different topics."
Lewinsky's relationship with Clinton became one of the most high-profile political scandals of the 1990s. She was 22 at the time, while Clinton, then 49, was serving as president and married.
The scandal ultimately led to Clinton's impeachment by Congress, though he was never convicted.
Lewinsky, meanwhile, became the subject of relentless media attention and late-night ridicule.
Lewinsky Addresses Gender, Media Scrutiny, and Public Shaming
Lewinsky has since spoken openly about the treatment she endured, including criticism from late-night television.
She previously accused comedian Jay Leno of repeatedly targeting her in jokes, though he has denied singling her out.
On Thursday, she revisited the topic while discussing how gender played a role in her experience.
"I definitely think that being a woman had so much to do with what my experience was," she said. "I think also being a woman who didn't necessarily look like a person someone assumes would be in a situation like that."
"We didn't even have words for sl—- shaming or fat shaming. I don't know that Jay Leno would have made as many jokes in late night had I been a man. Because it becomes so much about how much you look."
In the years since, Lewinsky has reshaped her public image.
In 2014, she re-entered the spotlight with her Vanity Fair essay "Shame and Survival," where she began speaking out about online harassment, describing herself as "patient zero."
More recently, in February 2025, she launched her podcast Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, continuing her work around identity, resilience, and public perception.
