Monica Lewinsky Interview [Part 4 of 6]

they have probably been more questions asked about the now-infamous stained blue dress than about almost any other aspect of Monika and the president's affair without this dress there might never have been proof that there even was an affair but why did Monica keep the dress in the first place did she consider it a souvenir of her love and why on earth did she confide in Linda Tripp the answers now from Monica in her own words the famous blue dress white dress that now famous blue dress On February 28 1997 Betty curry called and invited Monica to attend the president's radio address at the White House Monica ran home to her Watergate apartment and put on a blue dress from the gap and then after the address and for the first time in 10 months she was alone with Bill Clinton in the Oval Office this was the most intimate of their meetings on this occasion they went further than ever before and Lewinsky 's dress became stained in the process Monica says she went home that afternoon put the dress away and never noticed the stains until the next time she thought of wearing it what did you think the stains were at first I didn't know and I thought oh this is dirty that's weird and then it came to my mind that the last time I had worn it was when I was with the president and I thought oh oh no and it was funny to me I this is the whole subject of the dress has been one of those topics this past year that I know is it's a lot more fun to think that I kept it as a souvenir to think that I cherished this and I would never clean it and I was some sick deranged person who kept this as a trophy but that's not what it was what many people find disgusting is that you did just take this dress and send it out to be dry-cleaned what happened was I have a lot of clothes and I the next time when I had gone to put on this dress when I believe it was the time that I noticed it was soiled it didn't fit I gained weight so it was sort of this frustration oh this thing doesn't fit anyway threw it in the closet and it was funny I had mentioned it to my girlfriends we laughed about it with one a even joke gee maybe he'll pay for the dry-cleaning it was and he never thought that this was something that was serious or incriminate of course not it wasn't an issue I was never going to talk about this relationship why did you tell Linda Tripp about this dress because it was funny it was funny and then she told you save this dress yes listen to this tape I just I don't trust the people around him and I just want you to have that for you clear baggy put it in a ziplock bag lady Merrill Monica it's just this nagging awful feeling I have in the back of my head so Monica did save the dress and this is one secret she says she kept even from her mother until Linda Tripp told prosecutors about it one of the other things that people don't understand is you gave the dress to your mother what kind of a woman saves a dress there have been a lot of things that have been said about me my mother and my family that are not true and that is one of them my mom did not know about this dress until the rest of the world first heard of this dress and it was I think a few weeks into this nightmare and it was on the TV and she turned to me and she said what is this about this dress is this one of these crazy things that they keep talking about and I had looked at her and I said well and she said well where is it and I said in your apartment in New York and she just looked at me and we were both so paralyzed with fear and I didn't have immunity yet and I was terrified of the way I was being watched how I was being monitored I didn't know and I thought okay I could watch this I could destroy this I knew at that point I knew that was obstruction of justice and I was in enough trouble already ken starr's people didn't know you had this dress why did you turn it over to them because I had to getting and keeping my immunity became very important to me I needed to take care of myself and my family no one else was worried about me did you feel you had to then tell the truth about absolutely everything including this dress you bet and I did if it had not been for the DNA evidence the president might never have admitted his relationship with you hmm Linda Tripp nas says she did you a favor yeah um if if there was a parade and I said to you ms Walters come stand here for the best view of this parade and I planned actually secretly to push a piano out of the window to fall on your head and then at the last minute I pulled you out of the way so that the piano didn't hit you and then said I saved your life it's ridiculous it's ludicrous I this dress is one of the most humiliating things that has happened to me every man that I have met since this thing has happened eventually says to me so what's the real story with the dress and it's humiliating I wish I hadn't had it will this dress be returned to you I don't know if it is turned over to you is your property what will you do with it I'll burn it when we come back what Monica calls d-day the president tells Monica that the relationship is over what did he say and how did she handle it you would scream at him sometimes over the phone I mean you would scream at him in person you would you would threaten him the President of the United States 20:20 continues once again Barbara Walters we return now to Monica Lewinsky in her own words what had begun as a relationship of intimate encounters and amorous phone calls was not turning sour the president it seems was trying to find a way out you will hear an amazing admission Monica says he made to her about his marriage and you will learn now how the unraveling of her romance turned into the most terrifying year of your life let's turn to May 24th 1997 this was a year and a half about after your relationship with Bill Clinton began it's what you call d-day but stood for dump day dump Monica yes in breaking up with you that day the president confided in you as he had not before he talked about difficulties that he's had in his life and in his private life Monica later told investigators that Bill Clinton said he had led a life of lies and deception ever since he was a small boy according to Monica the president said that he had been with hundreds of women until the time he was 40 and at that time he considered divorce and leaving politics but decided to try to make his marriage work and to quote be good according to Monica he told her that they could remain friends and that he could do a lot for her but that the relationship was not right in the eyes of God I was them I was heartbroken I was I I didn't want the relationship to end you want so badly to hold on to this thing that you want and it's um and it hurts you said that when you left Bill Clinton's office that day you sobbed in the arms of Betty curry and there were times when she escorted you into the president's office and left and so forth do you think that Betty curry was an enabler I certainly know that this relationship could not have continued the way it did when I was at the Pentagon and the president was obviously at the White House without Betty in retrospect do you think that Betty curry knew about your relationship with the president she strikes me as a type of woman that probably wouldn't even have allowed herself to think that she certainly knew that there was a personal relationship there something that caused me great happiness and great distress a scene that has been talked about and written about was when you went to the White House an unscheduled visit to see Bill Clinton and you were told at the gate that he was meeting with a woman a journalist named Eleanor Mondale you got mad you stalked off and hangry Bill Clinton called you later and said Monica you made a stink he was furious well were you at that point in your head I was at the end of my rope I mean this was I don't know that people have people can understand the the push and pull of this relationship I mean the how confusing it would be for me to on the one hand have someone saying things to you I promise this I promise that I care about you I don't want to hurt you I want to take care of you and then the actions are something different and then you get into a fight and then you make up then he says everything's okay and I miss you and then he doesn't want to see you it's it's pretty tough emotionally towards the end of the relationship with Bill Clinton you had many arguments you would scream at sometimes over the phone you would threaten him the President of the United States I I didn't see him as the President of the United States I saw him as a man and that was how I treated him were you then out of control mm-hmm yes I think I think that for someone like me who's a very passionate loving woman I think you often get close to that line and I went through a very difficult period and I could not recognize that I needed help and I needed I needed to be on some sort of antidepressant much later on after everything with Ken Starr after the affidavit this past year you were put on medication yes yes one of the things that perhaps people don't understand is that once he broke off the sexual relationship Bill Clinton continued to have conversations with you meetings with you yes it is they where the end is the end and that's it no no but I also have to add that there was another element to all this which was my job and I had lost my job and I had been promised that I could come back you know other women have had sexual relationships and they don't expect that out of it is going to come a job I never expected that out of this relationship would come a job but your friend said here he's got to help me get a job no what happened was that he promised me on April 6 1996 what I had to leave the White House promised me and he said to me I promise you if I win in November I'll bring you back like okay and he didn't so he didn't keep his promise so you could have said he didn't keep his promise he didn't get me a job so be it but you held him to that I did I did towards the end of this relationship you were a real pain in the butt you bet you bet so the president breaks up with you finally you decide you to get out of Washington and Linda Tripp suggested that you ask Vernon Jordan the president's very close friend a very powerful man and he helped you yeah look for a job now you have been very adamant that Vernon Jordans help was not in any way a payoff for your silence but then tell us why you think he was helping you I don't think I've ever said that I thought mr. Jordans assistants had nothing to do with the fact that the President and I were at least friends but I was never promised a job for my silence your feeling was that the president had said to Vernon Jordan help her do you think they've been in Jordan knew that you had an affair with Bill Clinton I don't know well you told him at one point something about I wouldn't you say after I'd asked him if he thought the president would always be married to the first lady and he said yes he should yes he will as he should but then mr. Jordan but maybe you'll have an affair with him when he's out of office and I that was too startling to me and I said to him well I already did have an affair with him but we didn't have sex or everything but sex or something like that an affair without sex still called an affair I think so I called I considered that I had an affair with the president and we didn't have sex well intercourse so Monica I never know where to go with that when I

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Views: 463,156

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Keywords: Monica, Lewinsky, scandal, Bill, Clinton, impeachment, Barbara, Walters, 20/20

Id: k7GOSDGAuQ0

Length: 14min 38sec (878 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 02 2011