Whatever Happened To Linda Tripp?

In the late '90s, former White House employee Linda Tripp found herself at the center of a media firestorm after it was discovered that she had secretly recorded conversations with then-President Bill Clinton's mistress, White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Tripp handed those recordings over to Kenneth Starr, the man investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton's Whitewater scandal. 

Tripp's tapes played a key role in President Clinton's eventual impeachment, but Tripp endured intense media scrutiny for her role in the debacle. She even became the brunt of infamous impersonations on Saturday Night Live. Like many of the key players involved in the misconduct allegations aimed at President Clinton, Tripp largely disappeared from the spotlight, and remained out of the public eye until her death in April 2020. According to NPR, there was no reported cause of death, "but news reports indicated she endured a brief case of pancreatic cancer."

So, what happened to her between the Clinton scandal and her death? Let's just say that Linda Tripp's life has not been easy, but she always stood her ground.

Also in her interview with Larry King, Linda Tripp opened up about her decision to get plastic surgery, which she said was fueled by scrutiny from the press during the Clinton scandal and by comedian John Goodman's unflattering impression of her on Saturday Night Live. "I was so shattered for my children," she said. "Kids are so sensitive about their parents anyway. And my kids always thought I was pretty. And they were so completely shattered ... I just felt so badly for them. I just wanted to fix it."

"I think you steel yourself and you steel yourself to say this doesn't matter to me," she said. "I was never one to preen anyway. I was never one to really think a whole lot about that. I thought I looked fine." She added, "But yeah, when I saw the pictures, I was dismayed as well. But remember, when the country met me, it was five years, more than five years after I had really endured Clinton hell, and I internalized in such a way that I ate my way into oblivion to sort of cope."

In 2004, Tripp married architect Dieter Rausch, whom she met when she was just 10 years old. She told Larry King that Rausch was her first kiss at age 14, and the couple reunited around 2000 in Germany. Rausch — who at one point lived next door to Tripp's grandmother — helped her through her battle with breast cancer, reported Time. He later moved to Middleburg, Va. to be by her side.

Tripp's previous marriage to Army officer Bruce Tripp ended in divorce in the early '90s, according to the The Baltimore Sun. They have two children together: son Ryan and daughter Allison. In 2015, the Daily Mail reported that Tripp had seven grandchildren.

In a rare interview published in 2015 by the Daily Mail, Linda Tripp painted a ruthless portrait of what Hillary Clinton was allegedly like during her husband's two terms in the White House in the '90s. "Hillary Clinton ruled the White House even as early as 1993, and every scandal that originated in the Clinton administration was the brainchild of Hillary," Tripp alleged. "When I think of Hillary Clinton I think of a lingering taint of scandal and wrongdoing and, in my opinion, possible criminal activity."

Tripp also dished dirt alleging that the Clintons shared a "common goal" of obtaining power and that Hillary's bid for the White House "has been planned for so many years." She added, "I think the most compelling thing about Hillary is that she will stop at nothing to achieve her end and that she views the public as plebeians easily seduced into believing her point of view."

Linda Tripp has kept such a low-profile over the years that when she spoke at the National Whistleblower Day about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal in July 2018, The Washington Post described it as "her first public address in nearly two decades." Her only regret in the sex scandal that rocked the nation? "Not having the guts to do it sooner," she said.

"It was always about right and wrong, never left and right," Tripp said. "It was about exposing perjury and the obstruction of justice. It was never about politics." However, that came at a great cost. Tripp believes her reputation was dragged through the mud by the media while the Clintons were framed as victims. In her words, she now knows what "a real high-tech lynching feels like." She added, "There's nothing quite like it, and there's nothing that can prepare you for it." Although she believes it is "virtually impossible to get your good name back," she still believes she made the right decision. "My duty, my oath, was to the office of the presidency, not to the sitting incumbent, and I was true to that oath."

In 2017, Variety reported that Amazon Studios secured the rights to Linda and Monica, a film about the complicated relationship between the two women at the center of the Clinton scandal. Speaking to Page Six, Linda Tripp joked, "They should check John Goodman's availability." The Big Lebowski actor played Tripp in several Saturday Night Live skits in the '90s, but in all seriousness, Tripp wanted members of the public to know that Goodman might not be the best choice anymore. "They might be surprised to see what I look like today. That hulking person no longer exists," she said. "I'm happy now and not eating myself into oblivion to relieve stress." (According to IMDb, the film has not been cast at the time of this writing.)

Tripp didn't have high hopes for historical accuracy on the screen. "It's unlikely they'll show Bill Clinton as a predator exploiting a willing young girl," she said. "She consented. She instigated. But she was a kid." Tripp also revealed that she hasn't spoken to Monica Lewinsky in years but hoped the producers "do her justice."