Monica Lewinsky biography
Date of birth : 1973-07-23
Date of death : -
Birthplace : San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality : American
Category : Famous Figures
Last modified : 2010-07-21
Credited as : White House intern, television personality, fashion/handbag designer
2 votes so far
Monica Lewinsky was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in an affluent family in Southern California in the Westside Brentwood area of Los Angeles and in Beverly Hills. She is of Jewish descent. Her father is Bernhard Lewinsky, an oncologist, and her mother, Marcia Lewis, is an author; her parents' acrimonious separation and divorce during 1987 and 1988 had a significant effect on Monica. (Her father later married his wife Barbara; her mother later married R. Peter Straus, a media executive.) Growing up, the family attended Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and she attended Sinai Akiba Academy, its religious school. For her primary education she attended the John Thomas Dye School in Bel-Air. She then attended Beverly Hills High School, but for her senior year transferred to and graduated from Bel Air Prep (later known as Pacific Hills School) in 1991.
She attended two-year community college Santa Monica College, and worked for the drama department at Beverly Hills High School and at a tie shop. In 1993, she enrolled at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, graduating with a psychology degree in 1995.
Taking advantage of a family connection, Lewinsky moved to Washington, D.C. to work at the White House as an unpaid summer intern starting in July 1995 in the office of White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. She moved to a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in December 1995.
Monica Lewinsky was a recent college graduate when she took a position as an intern in the White House in 1995. In January of 1998 the news broke that Linda Tripp, a former co-worker, had Lewinsky on tape talking about an illicit affair between Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton. Eventually Lewinsky was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for detailed testimony of her liaisons with Clinton, who, in public and under oath, had denied any sexual relationship. When Clinton was forced to admit an "inappropriate relationship," the House of Representatives impeached him. Clinton was eventually acquitted after a trial by the U.S. Senate, but the scandal marred the last three years of his administration. Lewinsky told her side in the 1999 book Monica's Story (written by Andrew Morton). She later appeared as a spokesperson for the Jenny Craig weight loss program, hosted the TV reality show Mr. Personality for one season in 2003, and dabbled in a new career as a handbag designer.
Extras
Lewinsky graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 1995... She received a Masters degree from the London School of Economics in 2006. A news release from Lewinsky's publicist said that the LSE degree was in Social Psychology and that her thesis was titled "In Search of the Impartial Juror: An exploration of the third person effect and pre-trial publicity"... Lewinsky's case is sometimes compared to the sadder tale of another Washington intern, the late Chandra Levy.