クリントン元大統領、不倫は「心配事を解消するため」　Ｈｕｌｕで告白

【ニューヨークＡＦＰ＝時事】ビル・クリントン元米大統領（73）が、米ホワイトハウスの実習生だったモニカ・ルインスキーさん（当時22）と不倫関係を持ったことについて、大統領としてのストレスを軽くし、心配事を解消するためだったと、米動画配信サービス「Hulu（フールー）」が6日に配信を開始したドキュメンタリー作品で打ち明けている。（写真はビル・クリントン元米大統領〈右〉と妻のヒラリー・クリントン氏）
　米Ｈｕｌｕが配信している４部構成のドキュメンタリー・シリーズ「Ｈｉｌｌａｒｙ（原題）」は、ビル氏の妻で元ファーストレディーのヒラリー・クリントン氏の人生に焦点を当てた内容で、ビル氏を弾劾裁判に追い込んだ不倫騒動に関しても夫妻に別々でインタビューを行っている。
　ビル氏はこのインタビューで、１９９５年に始まったルインスキーさんとの不倫関係は「自分の心配事を解消する」ための手段だったとした上で、この関係がルインスキーさんの人生を左右してしまったことには「つらい」感情を抱いたと述べている。
　ビル氏はさらに、人生の「プレッシャーや失望感、恐怖、不安といったさまざまなことや、自分の心配事を解消するために長年していたこと」が動機となり、不倫関係に至ったと説明している。
　またインタビューでは、不倫に関するニュースが報じられる前に娘のチェルシーさんに伝えるよう、ヒラリー氏がビル氏に話したことについて２人が振り返るシーンもあり、ビル氏は「だから私から話した。大変だった」と語っている。
　また、夫を擁護する決断を下したことについてヒラリー氏は、批判と称賛どちらの声も浴びてきたと告白。一方でビル氏は、妻がそばにいてくれたことは「とてもありがたかった」と語った。
　ビル氏は、ルインスキーさんとの不倫関係と、その後の宣誓供述で偽証したことで、１９９８年１２月に弾劾訴追された。１９９９年２月には上院の弾劾裁判で無罪となったものの、クリントン政権はこのスキャンダルに彩られることになった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/03/09-12:55）

Bill Clinton said he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky to help him deal with the stress of being president as he opened up in a documentary released Friday about the scandal that led to his impeachment.
In the four-part Hulu series, Clinton says his sexual relationship with the then White House intern was a means to manage my anxieties, and that he felt terrible the affair came to define Lewinsky's life.
It was awful what I did, added the 73-year-old. We all bring our baggage to life and sometimes we do things we shouldn't do.
Clinton described the affair as motivated by life's pressure and disappointments and terrors, fears of whatever, things I did to manage my anxieties for years.
Bill and Hillary Clinton were interviewed separately about what they recall from that time for the series entitled Hillary, focused on the life of the former first lady.
Clinton's sexual relationship with Lewinsky and subsequent denial about it under oath led to his impeachment in December 1998.
He was acquitted by the Senate in February 1999 but the scandal came to define his presidency.
Hillary Clinton says she felt devastated and so personally hurt when her husband told her about the affair.
They both talk about how Hillary told him to inform their daughter Chelsea before the news became public.
So, I did that, which was awful, said the ex-president. What I did was wrong. I just hated to hurt her, he added.
Bill Clinton insisted nobody in his position would have thought about the risks they were taking by having the affair.
You feel like you are staggering around, you have been in a 15-round prize fight that was extended to 30 rounds and here is something that will take your mind off of it for a while. That is what happens, he explained.
The 42nd president also reflects on how the incident affected Lewinsky, who was 22 when the two-year affair began in 1995, saying he thinks her life has been unfairly defined by it.
- 'Burden' -
Over the years I have watched her trying to get a normal life back again. But you got to decide how to define normal, he told the interviewer.
Both Clintons reflect on Hillary's decision to stand by her husband.
She said she has been both criticized and praised over the years and suggested the #MeToo global reckoning against men abusing positions of power had led people to view her decision differently.
It is a funny time we live in, the kind of public opinion shifts and people say, 'Oh, so noble, she stayed in her marriage' to 'Oh, it is so incomprehensible that she stayed in her marriage,' says Clinton.
You know that there are forces (at) work in a society that people are working through themselves, she adds.
During the hour-long episode, Bill says he felt so grateful that his wife stuck by him.
God knows the burden she paid for that, said the former president.
He also contemplates how he has changed in the more than 20 years since the scandal.
I am a totally different person than I was. Maybe it is just getting older, but I hope it was also going through a lot of this, he says.