Monica Lewinsky shared new details of her "flirtatious encounters" with former President Bill Clinton 20 years ago in clips released on Friday from a new documentary series examining the scandal that surrounded their affair.
Lewinsky, in interviews for A&E's "The Clinton Affair," said that she was immediately struck by the former president when she first met him at a White House event in the 1990s and developed an intense crush.
"I didn't get it until the first time I was really in his presence," Lewinsky, who was a White House intern at the time of the affair, said in one clip. "I kind of have to laugh at my younger self, but that was when my crush started."
In another clip, Lewinsky said the former president often gave her "The Full Bill Clinton" during encounters, which she described as making her feel "as if you’re the only person standing there."
She also described gifts he gave her, including a hat pin and "Leaves of Grass," a collection of poetry by Walt Whitman, which she called "a very meaningful present."
She added that over the course of her time in the White House, she would go out of her way to get the former president to pay attention to her.
"I did this really silly thing, I ran home at lunchtime, and I put back on the sage green suit I had been wearing the day before when he paid attention to me, and I thought, 'Well maybe he'll notice me again.' And notice me, he did," she said.
She said the pair then had "a number of these flirtatious encounters" over several months.
Filmmaker Blair Foster, who directed the three-night series, told MSNBC on Friday that the documentary explores all the scandals that rocked the Clinton administration, but Lewinsky plays a central role.
Foster said that Lewinsky's candidness in the documentary was her "rethinking things as an adult" because she was "22 at the time and I think all of us can relate to romance at the age of 22."
Lewinsky has since become an activist who advocates against cyberbullying.
"The Clinton Affair" premieres Sunday on A&E.
