Lewinsky cashes in on affair

Monica Lewinsky says she has struggled to move on from her notorious relationship with Bill Clinton -- but has no regrets about accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars to talk about the affair, reports MSN.com.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Lewinsky imparted the hard-won lesson of six years of intense scrutiny by the American judicial system and the world's media.

"As the commodity in the interview, you'd be crazy not to get compensated," she said.

The former White House intern, a panelist for a debate about the widespread British practice of chequebook journalism, received a reported US$700,000 ($1,089,833) the highest payment in British television history, for a 1999 interview with Channel 4 television.

"The reality was, I didn't have a choice," Lewinsky said of the payment. "I had enormous legal bills, and I hadn't been working for a year. I needed to put my life back together and I needed to pay those bills."