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You've heard her name in

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headlines during trivia nights as a

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punchline. Monica Lewinsky. She's been a

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major reference in pop culture since

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she was 24 years old when

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a scandal made her a household

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name overnight. Since then, she's fought

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to redefine her reputation. And now,

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she's ready to use her experience

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to encourage others to take back

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their power, too. On her new

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podcast, Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky.

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Monica leads honest and wide-ranging

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conversations about what it means

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to write your own narrative.

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Each week, guest share how

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they've rediscovered purpose, rebuilt relationships,

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and redefined success after their

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most vulnerable moments. A single

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incident can shape how the

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world views someone's life. It

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might be a public scandal,

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a viral moment, a career

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setback, or a personal struggle

0:52

thrust into the spotlight. through

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raw conversations with actors, athletes,

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activists, and everyday people, reclaiming

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explores what happens after the

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headlines fade, and how to

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find your voice when the

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world thinks it already knows

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your story. You're about to

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hear a preview of reclaiming

1:12

with Monica Lewinsky. While you're

1:14

listening, follow reclaiming with

1:16

Monica Lewinsky wherever you get

1:19

your podcasts. One, two,

1:21

three. Hi

1:25

everyone, for today's episode I spoke

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with my brave and brilliant friend,

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Olivia Munn. We met over a

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decade ago and bonded over all

1:33

things woo-woo. So Crystal's, astrology, we

1:35

just got into deep real conversation

1:37

really quickly, which is kind of

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the way I like to do

1:41

it. You probably know her as

1:43

an actor and an activist, and

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if you're on social media, you'd

1:47

also know her as the mom

1:50

to adorable Malcolm in May. Because

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Olivia and I are close I

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knew about her struggle with breast

1:56

cancer in real time, but to

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hear her heartbreaking inspiring story in

2:00

the details that she shared in

2:02

our conversation. It meant so much

2:05

to me and made me admire

2:07

her even more. And for any

2:09

fans in the newsroom, we went

2:11

there too. So anyway, I hope

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you find something to connect to

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in our chat and thanks for

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joining us on reclaiming. So let's

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get into it. I knew that my

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friends and people in my life saw

2:24

me as somebody that would fight back.

2:27

And I had no idea that I

2:29

Could be manipulated and

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hurt that way that I wouldn't

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just get out of something that

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was dangerous to my psyche

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so so many so many women

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I think find themselves in in

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different levels of relationships

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that are Everything from psychologically

2:46

and emotionally abusive to physically

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abusive and and I think

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find it hard to leave.

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You know I mean and

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I think people talk more

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now about you know, attachment

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styles and stuff. And so

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I look back on some

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of my relationships during what

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I call my dark decade.

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So kind of in between

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98 graduate school, whatever,

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and my first person essay

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in Vanity Fair in 2014.

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And I think I look at it,

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and maybe it's a story

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I tell myself, but I

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think about that the pain.

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I was in, staying in

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relationships with people who didn't

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value me, who talked to

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me a certain way that I

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allowed and accepted and kept

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going back for more. And

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I look at it and I

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think I was in a deeper pain

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and experiencing the pain in the

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relationship was actually easier. Like I

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knew I knew I knew I

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had to go through pain and

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that was easier than the pain

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of really what I was sitting

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on of both not only my

3:59

experience. and 98 but whatever

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all those experiences before

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it that that that led

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to all of that and did

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you feel it do you feel

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like does that resonate at all

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or no I only had healthy

4:14

relationships and then it well that

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one made up for all of

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it it was a bad bad

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period of my life and what

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I actually realized that I

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really want to teach my children and

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any friends of mine, is that, you

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know, when they say, like, oh, just

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go on the date, like, you never

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know, like, you might like them, you

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know, you'll at least learn what you

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don't like. I think for some

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people who are like subconsciously

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vulnerable, which is what I

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think I was, because I had no

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idea, I was like this vulnerable

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to anything that had happened to

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me post that first date, is

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that if you feel in your gut.

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something's not right, then don't

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do that first date or get

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out right away because one day

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could take years off of your

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life. Not just the period that

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you're with the person, but if

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you're lucky enough to get out,

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the years healing yourself afterwards. In

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that particular situation, I

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had a therapist who I really loved

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and I know that she cared about

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me or at least I thought she

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did. And I would... constantly from the

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very beginning to say I don't I

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don't know about this I don't think

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this is the right I want to

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get and then it got worse and

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worse I'd be calling her crying and

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be like I got to get out

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like and I was like help me

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get out like help me like wow

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like and this is this is shocking

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to people but but she encouraged me

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to stay she thought that you know

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my quote-unquote picker was off and she

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would look at it as like But

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this person on paper

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looked great. And... when

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there was couple's therapy,

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they knew how to present the

6:04

right way. So then the stories

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I would tell seemed unbelievable. I

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think what's interesting to me

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is to just think about

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how you have this strong

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sense of self, you lost

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yourself in this relationship. What's

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so interesting to me is

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because I think this is

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in a short period of

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time, you you were able to,

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it may have been, it may have

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felt like forever to you,

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and may have seemed near

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impossible, but you actually

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stepped into a healing mode

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and found yourself again in

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what I think is like

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a very powerful and quick,

6:48

quick. quick ways, you know, in

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a really, and that's one of the

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things that I admire about you, is

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that you are, you're so, that you

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have a focus. And I think that's

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part of, I think that's the good,

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the good side of the black and

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white, the good side of the kind

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of the fierceness, the going in and

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it's a decisiveness. That was

7:11

just a preview of reclaiming

7:13

with Monica Lewinsky. Watch new

7:15

episodes on YouTube or listen

7:17

wherever you get your podcasts.