Monica Lewinsky breaks long silence on White House affair with Clinton

Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky has broken a long silence about her 1990s affair with US president Bill Clinton, saying she wants to reclaim the narrative of events that brought her global humiliation.

Lewinsky, now 40, was in her early 20s when she became the infamous beret-wearing muse who engaged in sexual relations with the president and then endured a colossal backlash that she said nearly drove her to suicide.

After years of being turned away by potential employers, ridiculed online and confronted by accusers as "that woman" who performed oral sex on Clinton in the Oval Office, she decided to write her version of events in this month's Vanity Fair magazine. It was published on Tuesday.

"It's time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress," Lewinsky wrote in a lengthy essay in the magazine. The "blue dress" refers to a garment that was infamously stained by Clinton's bodily fluids.

"I am determined to have a different ending to my story. I've decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past."

She said her radio silence was so complete for nearly a decade that rumours swirled that the Clintons must have paid her off to keep her quiet.