MONICA BLAMES HER BOSS SEE WHAT SHE SAID IN HER CLEARANCE

My boss took advantage of me': Monica Lewinsky opens up on affair with Bill Clinton

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Monica Lewinsky says there is no question her boss - Bill Clinton - "took advantage" of her when he was US president.

But she says their affair was consensual and if there was any abuse involved, it came afterward, when Clinton's inner circle tried to discredit her and the president's opponents used her as a political pawn.

Sure, my boss took advantage of me. But I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship. Any 'abuse' came in the aftermath. 

The former White House intern, now 40, writes about her life in the next issue of Vanity Fair magazine, out this month. In released excerpts, she says she is perhaps the first internet era scapegoat and wants to speak out on behalf of other victims of online humiliation.

Her willingness to step forward may come at an inopportune time as former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton considers running for president. Republicans have signalled they don't consider her husband's scandal from the late 1990s out of bounds in the realm of 2016-style political dialogue

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a likely GOP presidential contender, answered criticisms of the Republican record on women's issues by saying in January that the last Democratic president engaged in "predatory behaviour" with a woman, Lewinsky, who was 22 when her liaisons with Clinton began in 1995.

Clinton's lies about the relationship contributed to his impeachment by the House in 1998; the Senate acquitted him.

Affair: Monica Lewinsky pictured in July 1998. Photo: Reuters

Lewinsky writes that she deeply regrets the affair and made a point of staying silent through several presidential campaigns to avoid becoming a distraction.

Now, she writes, it's time to stop "tiptoeing around my past - and other people's futures. I am determined to have a different ending to my story. I've decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past. (What this will cost me, I will soon find out.)"

Invoking her headwear from endlessly repeated TV clips and the stained garment considered as evidence against Clinton, she writes: "It's time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress."

She also says: "I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened."

Lewinsky writes that she is still recognised every day, and her name shows up daily in media and pop-culture references.

By sharing her story, Lewinsky says she hopes she can help others "in their darkest moments of humiliation". Lewinsky also reveals she had strong suicidal temptations during the investigation into her relationship with Clinton.

she says, "is to get involved with efforts on behalf of victims of online humiliation and harassment and to start speaking on this topic in public forums."

"Sure, my boss took advantage of me," she writes. "But I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship. Any 'abuse' came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position."