Former President Bill Clinton tried to wish his wife a happy Valentine’s day, but got an unhappy reminder that she’s not his one and only.
The 42nd president shared a throwback snap of himself and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton smiling candidly during the early years of their relationship.
He captioned the photo: “Happy Valentine’s Day to my forever Valentine!”
While the Clinton’s have been married for nearly half of a century, the internet was quick to remind the former president that at least some of their 48 years of marriage were clearly not carefree.
“Forever?” Someone responded to his post. “Except when you were with Monica.”
“Bill… did [Hillary] hijack your account again???” a Twitter user asked cheekily.
“Come on now Billy… you know you’ve got more than one of those,” another added.
“Other than when your valentine is another woman, right Bill?” One person pointed out.
When he was president, Clinton had a notorious affair with then White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which began in 1995 when she was 22 and he was 49.
The affair lasted for eighteen months and ended in 1997, after the pair had nine sexual encounters per Lewinsky.
Their dirty secret unraveled in 1998, when Lewinsky confided in fellow Pentagon employee Linda Tripp about the affair, after the White House transferred her there to remove her from Clinton’s orbit.
Tripp encouraged Lewinsky to save gifts she received from Clinton, along with a blue semen stained dress as an insurance policy.
The then public affairs affairs official secretly recorded conversations with the former intern about her relationship with the president.
The act was illegal, and Tripp eventually turned the tapes over to Independent Counsel Kenneth Star in early 1998, in exchange for immunity.
Both Clinton and Lewinsky initially lied about the affair under oath, which led to his infamous denial of “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” in January 1998.
The next day, Hillary told Today that news of Bill’s extramarital relationships were untrue and blamed the GOP for spreading rumors.
“The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president,” she remarked.
Both Clinton and Lewinsky eventually fessed up to the affair on the record.
She struck an immunity deal to testify to a grand jury about the relationship and turn over the semen stained dress, which matched the then president’s DNA.
He confessed to engaging in an “improper physical relationship” with the former intern and was impeached.
The impeachment failed when the Senate was unable to convict with a less than majority vote, and Clinton was allowed to remain in office for the duration of his term.
In 2021, Lewinsky told CNN’s Jake Tapper that their was a clear power imbalance in their relationship.
“So it was wholly inappropriate as the most powerful man, my boss, 49 years old. I was 22, literally just out of college,” she commented.
“And I think that the power differentials there are something that I couldn’t ever fathom consequences at 22 that I understand obviously so differently at 48.”
Clinton publicly apologized publicly to Lewinsky, but never privately, according to the former intern.
“Here’s what I want to say: It wasn’t my finest hour, but the important thing is that was a very painful thing that happened 20 years ago and I apologized to my family, to Monica Lewinsky and her family, to the American people,” he said in 2018.
“I meant it then, I meant it now,” Clinton told Stephen Colbert. “I’ve had to live the consequences every day since.”
“Roses are red, Violets are blue, Kind of like that blue dress,” someone replied to his Valentine’s Day post.
“Holy cow, so young, I didn’t even recognize Monica Lewinsky in this photo!” Another person trolled.
The affair was eventually dramatized in FX’s Impeachment: American Crime Story in 2021, with Lewinsky serving as a co-producer.
“And as a subject, I’m nervous. I’m nervous for people to see some of the worst moments of my life and a lot of behavior that I regret,” she said at the time.
“I do not recommend watching your early 20s be dramatized on TV, especially in this instance where the truth really was stranger than fiction.”
Aside from his very public affair, Clinton also caught flack for his association with convicted pedophile Jeffery Epstein, in response to his post.
“I thought Jeffrey Epstein was your forever valentine…” Comedian Tim Young jabbed.
“Someone managed to nix that romance,” one person replied.
Almost four years after his death, the names of Epstein’s associates are set to become public in the upcoming months.
The list is expected to contain “alleged perpetrators” and people accused of “serious wrongdoing” in connection with Epstein’s crimes, along with his employees and victims.
It’s unclear if Clinton’s name will be included in the hotly anticipated document dump.