Monica Lewinsky Is Breaking Her Silence About Her Affair With Bill Clinton

Monica Lewinsky is stepping out of the shadows, writing for the first time about her mid-1990s affair with former President Bill Clinton in this month's edition of Vanity Fair.

Lewinsky has kept a low profile over the last decade-plus, but she says it's "time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress."

In a preview of the article, which Vanity Fair posted to its website, Lewinsky says she "deeply regrets" her affair with Clinton.

"Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened," she wrote.

Lewinsky says she is going public in part because of the tragic story of 18-year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, who killed himself in 2010 after his roommate filmed him, without his knowledge, kissing another man. Lewinsky says the incident took her back to the days of her own scandal, when her mother worried she would try to commit suicide. Lewinsky says now she believes it is important to tell her own story.

"Thanks to the Drudge Report," she wrote of the online site to break the story of the affair, "I was also possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet."

Lewinsky's step out into the spotlight comes at a time when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Bill's wife, is actively considering a run for president in 2016. Some top potential Republican candidates have already played the Lewinsky card. Earlier this year, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said voters should think twice about Bill Clinton's return to the White House - even as a spouse - because of what he called "predatory behavior."

You can read a preview of Lewinsky's piece here.