My memories of interviewing Monica Lewinsky and why the world is a better place for women today - Christa Ackroyd

I don’t often think back to interviews I have done for the telly.
Monica Lewinsky, seen here in 1998, has shown she is a strong woman, says Christa Ackroyd. (Picture: AP).Monica Lewinsky, seen here in 1998, has shown she is a strong woman, says Christa Ackroyd. (Picture: AP).
Monica Lewinsky, seen here in 1998, has shown she is a strong woman, says Christa Ackroyd. (Picture: AP).

As my late friend Richard Whiteley used to tell me, once they are gone they are gone, disappearing into the ether, not even tomorrow’s fish and chip wrappings. Which is why neither of us ever saved any. Not one.

But that’s not to say there aren’t a handful that stick with you. Sometimes they lead to great change. And that is for the good. Many times they leave you, the interviewer, changed. And sometimes you are reminded of them, as in this case, because of events or even a television programme.

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Of all the interviews I have ever conducted (and I dread to think how many that is) this has to be about the most bizarre – and in a way one of the saddest.

The story began on a cold winter’s evening at the end of 1998 when the phone on my desk rang in the Calendar newsroom. I remember every detail. A contact of mine called and asked me to meet him with a cameraman. I say “man” because at the time I think they were all men, we females being such delicate little flowers.

My contact would tell me nothing more. It was all rather cloak and dagger. Even the venue where we were to meet our mystery interviewee was bizarre, a fish and chip shop in Headingley. But I had a good editor and I trusted the contact.

So after our programme aired I set off with said cameraman, intrigued and more than a little worried that it might not be worth it. How wrong I was. Seated in a quiet part of the restaurant was a woman instantly recognisable the world over. I don’t think I have ever been as shocked.

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It was all so incongruous. My contact, Fleet Street reporter turned author Andrew Morton, introduced us.

“Christa, meet Monica Lewinsky. Monica, we are here to do your first interview before our book is published and I have told her to be as tough as she possibly can. It will be nothing by comparison to what we will face when we get to the States”.

She looked terrified and so I got the world exclusive with a woman scorned not only by her lover but by society.

My first impression of Monica Lewinsky was how beautiful she was with her trademark red lipstick and black beret. She had the most luxurious hair and the most frightened expression I ever saw. She hardly made eye contact. I was the media. I was the enemy. We talked and filmed for several hours. Why did she keep “the blue dress”? She was advised to.

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What did she think of Linda Tripp, the woman who had taped and betrayed her? Utter disdain. And most important of all what did she think of the President of the United States of America? On that she was unequivocal. She would have nothing bad said about Bill Clinton. She even softened when she talked about him. It was obvious she was still in love with him.

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As we talked in that strangest of settings (I remember her look of bemusement when a side order of mushy peas arrived) it was clear she was damaged.

Who wouldn’t be? In the days before, during and after the evidence she was forced to give under the threat of imprisonment to the Kenneth Starr committee, thousands of articles were written about her.

She was the butt of blokey jokes and cruel female impersonations on all the US comedy shows, while intimate details of her relationship with the most powerful man in the Western world were written and talked about in lurid detail. She was, when I met her, still only in her mid-twenties.

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I liked her very much and I felt very sorry for her and have never forgotten how cowed she was by her own story.

Now she has the opportunity to tell that story and you must watch it. Women are stronger than sometimes any of us realise. And Monica is stronger than most.

Impeachment, the 10-part series on BBC2, has me gripped. It is the story of an affair, yes, but also the story of how judgemental society was towards the woman.

But more importantly it is her story. Monica Lewinsky has produced the drama and it pulls no punches. But, above, all it shows, as she says, how far we have come as women since then.

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In this country Meghan Markle has won her case for breach of privacy against the Mail on Sunday. Whatever you may think of her, and let us be honest, it is probably an opinion moulded by the media, she has been strong enough to step up and be counted.

In America, Harvey Weinstein is behind bars. The women he abused became the victors because of their bravery in coming forward. I know there will be some readers who will still snigger at the MeToo movement which followed. But I am not one of them. Neither is Monica Lewinsky. In a way it vindicated her.

She decided to work with the team that made Impeachment to finally have her say. Because it has taken her this long to reclaim who she is. And many others are doing the same.

If the MeToo movement had been around 23 years ago, Monica says she would have felt less alone. Above all, she says she agreed to be a part of the series because society has grown up a lot since then and now “allows people like me who have been historically silenced to finally reintroduce my voice to the conversation”.

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At 48 years old, Monica Lewinsky is no longer “that woman” defined by her sexual past. And I am glad.

She will always have to live with her past. We all do. But above all she will no longer be defined as the little intern who fell in love with a powerful man and had sex in the Oval Office. Watch Impeachment and see. We have all been on a journey since then.

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