Monica Lewinsky has said she hopes critics will eventually stop making jokes about her involvement in the White House scandal nearly 30 years ago. Speaking on a podcast, she reflected on becoming more comfortable in her fifties and said time and patience had helped her move beyond earlier anxieties.

Lewinsky, now 53, described ageing as freeing because she has shed many worries and become more secure in herself. Her comments revisit the public scrutiny she faced after her relationship with President Bill Clinton became a major political and media scandal in the late 1990s, a period that continues to shape discussion of public shaming and power imbalances.