Bill Clinton claims in a new documentary the affair with Monica Lewinsky that almost destroyed his presidency was one of the “things I did to manage my anxieties.”
Likening life in the White House to being a boxer “staggering” after a 30-round fight, Clinton, 73, says in the Hulu series “Hillary” that his affair was “something that will take your mind off it for a while,” according to DailyMailTV.
“Everybody’s life has pressures and disappointments, terrors, fears of whatever,” he said in justifying seeking distractions to “manage my anxieties for years.”
“Nobody thinks they’re taking a risk,” he says in the four-hour doc set to stream on Hulu starting Friday. “That’s not why we do stupid things.”
Clinton insists in the doc, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, that he is now a “totally different person” than the cheater 20 years ago.
The affair with then-intern Lewinsky led to Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1998, before he was ultimately acquitted.
He admitted that he initially lied to wife Hillary and denied the affair — recalling how he finally had to sit her down and confess when it was too obvious that he was lying.
“I went and sat on the bed and talked to her. I told her exactly what happened, when it happened. I said I feel terrible about it,” he tells the doc.
“We’ve been through quite a bit in the last few years. I said I have no defense, it’s inexcusable what I did.”
Hillary admits that she was “devastated.” “I could not believe it. I was so personally just hurt and I can’t believe this, I can’t believe you lied,” she said.
Hillary described the marriage counseling sessions they went through afterward as “painful, painful discussions.”
Bill called the sessions “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do but it was necessary.”
“She deserved it, Chelsea deserved it and I needed it,” he says.
“I feel terrible about the fact that Monica Lewinsky’s life was defined by it, unfairly I think.”
Still, he suggested it was time for Lewinsky to move on.
[via NY Post]
