Jay Leno has responded after Monica Lewinsky claimed he ‘targeted her’ over her affair with President Clinton in the 1990s.

Lewinsky’s infamous romance with Clinton which started when she was 22 and he was 49 eventually led to his impeachment.

On August 17, 1998, after multiple denials, the former leader appeared on television and finally confessed he was ‘solely and completely responsible’ for the relationship.

Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast this week, Lewinsky, was asked about the difference in the way women and men treated her after the affair became public, saying: ‘I think what was interesting that I started to see in the public arena was that it, very sadly, it was a lot of women who said worse things about me than the men.

‘The men told a lot of jokes, right? So the late night hosts… I think when Jay Leno retired, some media organization had done a study and listed the top 10 targets, his top 10 targets of his late night show, and I was on that list. I was the only person who wasn’t a public figure.’

Now sources close to Leno tell TMZ that he didn’t target Lewinsky personally, and that at the time she was ‘just an easy punchline and fair game’ due to being ‘everywhere in the news.’

Jay Leno has responded after Monica Lewinsky claimed he ‘targeted her’ over her affair with President Clinton in the 1990s – pictured February 14

Lewinsky’s infamous romance with Clinton which started when she was 22 and he was 49 eventually led to his impeachment – pictured 1997 

The source added that Leno wouldn’t call his comments unfair as ‘ she was often the ʙuтт of the jokes, but no one was out to get her personally.’

They said every male host at the time was making jokes about the affair scandal and not just Leno.

Leno is said to understand why Lewinsky is upset but that he would not make the same jokes about her today and has not mentioned her name in 30 years. 

Lewinsky has talked about the affair numerous times since it was made public.

Lewinsky also revealed that she believes Bill Clinton should have resigned after the scandal became public. 

‘I think the right way to handle a situation like that would have been to probably say it was nobody’s business and to resign,’ she began. 

‘Or, to find a way of staying in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person that was just starting out in the world under the bus.’   

Lewinsky has been back in the public eye and giving interviews in recent weeks, having told Rolling Stone about her current dating life.

On Call Her Daddy she said: ‘When Jay Leno retired, some media organization had done a study and listed… his top 10 targets of his late night show, and I was on that list’

Lewinsky famously had an affair with Clinton from 1995 until 1997, with their relationship beginning when she was a 22-year-old unpaid White House intern

She noted that she has found dating tough at times, but that most of her romantic encounters come through being set up by friends because she’s not on the apps.

‘I’m not on the apps,’ she shared. ‘I am like, I can’t. I’m going to be catfished. I am so gullible. I think it’s a level of trust that is just not quite there yet.’

Read More Monica Lewinsky recalls her ‘terror’ at stepping back into the public eye after years of hiding in the wake of the Bill Clinton scandal – as she opens up about her ‘long journey’ to finding joy in 25 years since her affair with then-President was revealed

‘I date,’ Lewinsky continued to Rolling Stone. ‘I have relationships, situationships, all the things. I’ve had connections with some extraordinary men.

‘I’ve been really lucky. Not lucky enough that it’s been with someone where it’s worked out at the right time. It just hasn’t.’

She initially retreated from the public eye, admitting she was left feeling suicidal after being hounded by reporters and ridiculed on talk shows.

‘I just couldn’t see a way out, and I thought that maybe was the solution,’ she said years later.

She admitted it was ‘terrifying’ to make the decision to step back into the public eye, but it has helped her to ‘reclaim’ the narrative about her life, following the infamous fallout over her affair with then-president.