Monica Lewinsky said being publicly shamed feels like 'a skinning of sorts'

Monica Lewinsky spoke out about the public shame she faced on and offline after news broke of her affair with then-President Bill Clinton in a rare interview with The Guardian on Saturday.

"I felt like every layer of my skin and my identity were ripped off of me in '98 and '99," she said. "It's a skinning of sorts. You feel incredibly raw and frightened. But I also feel like the shame sticks to you like tar."

Lewinsky, who first broke a years-long silence in a 2014 interview with Vanity Fair, said she nearly attempted suicide in the aftermath of the scandal.

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Read the rest of the former White House intern's interview, including some perceptive comments on the gender bias in online harassment, over at The Guardian.