Monica Lewinsky recalls how Barbara Walters became a friend after infamous 1999 interview

Monica Lewinsky reflected on her friendship with the legendary journalist Barbara Walters after her passing.

Walters died at the age of 93 on Friday evening, December 30, 2022, in New York, according to ABC News. Lewinsky, 49, took to social media on Friday night and posted a short thread remembering the iconic journalist.

Lewinsky, whose March 3, 1999 interview with Walters on ABC drew a whopping 74 million viewers, recalled meeting Walters at just 24 years of age amid Kenneth Starr's investigation, which ultimately uncovered President Bill Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, then a White House intern, via Entertainment Tonight.

An hours-long interview in 1998 between Barbara Walters and Monica Lewinsky turned into a longtime friendship between the two women.

“I knew Barbara for over half of my life. We met in the spring of 1998, in the midst of the Starr investigation; I was 24,” she tweeted. “I remarked that this was the first time I’d ever been in serious trouble. I’d basically been a good kid - got good grades, didn’t do drugs, never shoplifted etc. without missing a beat Barbara said: Monica, next time shoplift.”

Lewinsky shared that the two of them remained in touch for the past 25 years and recalled that last time she had seen her was over lunch a few years ago.

Of her infamous interview, she remarked that Walters was “charming, witty and some of her questions were still her signature interview style.”

“’So, tell me, Monica, how do you feel …etc etc.’ She was the very first person with whom I ever sat for a television interview… and will certainly be my most memorable.”

She then concluded her tribute by sending love to Walters’ friends and family.

Lewinsky – who first encountered Walters in 1998 during a 20/20 interview regarding her affair with President Bill Clinton while she was a White House intern – dropped multiple bombshells to Walters about the affair and issued a public apology to Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, via People Magazine.

Some of the memorable moments from that interview included Walters asking Lewinsky if she still was in love with Clinton; Lewinsky answered "No. Sometimes I have warm feelings. Sometimes I'm proud of him still, and sometimes I hate his guts. And, he makes me sick."