Monica Lewinsky's Reaction To Ken Starr's Death Has Everyone Saying The Same Thing

After attorney Ken Starr died at age 76, his family sent out a press release that placed some of his biggest career achievements at the forefront: Serving as president of Baylor University, securing the position of solicitor general during the George H.W. Bush administration, and being granted a federal judgeship by Ronald Reagan. There's no mention of the name "Monica Lewinsky," but to many Americans, what Starr is remembered most for is spearheading the probe into former President Bill Clinton's affair with the former White House intern. As history recalls, Clinton lied under oath about the nature of his relationship with Lewinsky and was impeached.

Because Lewinsky and Starr became household names in the '90s, Americans mostly relied on their TV screens and print publications to keep them updated on the scandal. But public interest in the parties involved endured into the social media era, and Lewinsky even used Twitter to seemingly share her thoughts about Starr joining former President Donald Trump's legal team when he was facing impeachment in 2020. "This is definitely an 'are you f***ing kidding me?" kinda day,'" she wrote.

In his book, "Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation," Starr painted an unflattering picture of Lewinsky's reaction to being questioned by FBI investigators. "For an hour, Monica screamed, she cried, she pouted," he wrote. In a 2018 Vanity Fair piece, Lewinsky recalled feeling threatened and terrified throughout the investigation and revealed that she wanted an apology from Starr. She didn't get one, but her response to Starr's death wasn't lacking compassion. 

In 2017, Monica Lewinsky ran into Ken Starr at a restaurant. "I felt determined, then and there, to remind him that, 20 years before, he and his team of prosecutors hadn't hounded and terrorized just me but also my family," she wrote in her Vanity Fair essay. As Starr inquired about her wellbeing, Lewinsky recalled, "He kept touching my arm and elbow, which made me uncomfortable." By then, she'd been clinically diagnosed with PTSD and had spent years feeling alone and forsaken. But when Starr appeared on CBS News months after their encounter, he refused to offer Lewinsky an apology.

Upon learning of Starr's death, Lewinsky tweeted, "As I'm sure many can understand, my thoughts about Ken Starr bring up complicated feelings ... but of more importance, is that I imagine it's a painful loss for those who love him." Knowing that Lewinsky had endured years of public shame and trauma, her followers confessed that her words weren't what they expected. "I don't know how you do it, but you continue to be gracious to those who never offered you the least bit of compassion or concern," read one response to her tweet. Others admitted that they would find it impossible to react with such magnanimity. "Your restraint and empathy is commendable. I would be ... less able to manifest grace," another person wrote. "You're a far better person than he was," a third opined, "and better than most of us too."