Monica Lewinsky says we are ‘all guilty’ for watching the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial

Monica Lewinsky, 48, likened the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial to ‘courtroom porn’ in a scathing Vanity Fair op-ed published before the verdict.

In the piece, the former White House intern turned television personality said that viewers who tuned in to the blockbuster court-case are ‘all guilty’ for participating in the ‘tawdry’ spectacle.

‘We have become so attuned to this narrow, cynical cycle of social media encounters that we consider the trial not tragic or pathetic, but as a pure car wreck: accessible, tawdry, and immediately gratifying,’ Lewinsky wrote. 

Monica Lewinsky attending the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March this year. In a scathing op-ed published in the magazine on Tuesday she called out viewers of the Depp v. Heard trial

The header for Lewinsky’s Tuesday op-ed in Vanity Fair. Depp and Heard are pictured on the left

‘We are drenched in the taint of the dirt and aggression of the social media wars.’

Lewinsky is certainly an authority on public scandal, having been the center of a media firestorm when news broke in 1998 about a sexual relationship she had with then-president Bill Clinton while she was serving as a White House intern.

Lewinsky and Clinton’s affair played a leading role in the president’s impeachment that year. 

She has since become a vocal advocate against cyberbullying. 

‘Having been on the receiving end of this kind of cruelty, I can tell you the scars never fade,’ Lewinsky wrote, arguing that the public’s negative attention was largely targeted at the Amber Heard, ‘I wasn’t surprised that the cruel and vitriolic discourse was predominantly aimed at the woman.’  

Johnny Depp pumping a defiant fist toward spectators in the courtroom after closing statements in the defamation trial on May 27

Amber Heard awaiting the verdict in her $100million defamation trial on June 1. Soon after, she learned that Depp was awarded $15million in damages, while she won $2million

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Depp, 58, sued Heard, 36, for $50million claiming that she defamed him with an op-ed piece in the Washington Post in 2018 in which she claimed to be a survivor of domestic abuse at his hands.

Heard, 36, countersued for $100million claiming that Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman made defamatory statements by calling her claims a ‘hoax.’

The trial began in April 2022 and became an international spectacle, with nearly every major news outlet live-streaming the proceedings.

Today, the jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages, while Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages. 

‘The obsessive chatter around the Depp–Heard trial is just one small example of the ever-expanding, ever-demanding search for schadenfreude and titillation,’ Lewinsky wrote, accusing the public of lapping up the misfortunes of others.   

‘No matter whom the jury’s verdict favors – be it defendant Heard or plaintiff Depp – we are guilty.’

Monica Lewinsky (left) alongside Bill Clinton (right) while she served as an intern at the White House. Their sexual scandal would land her at the center of a media firestorm

Lewinsky (center) leaving a federal building with lawyers after meeting with investigators in the 1990s. Her sexual relationship with Bill Clinton would lead to the president’s impeachment