Monica Lewinsky had her eyes on another man in the White House before she serviced President Clinton — Clinton’s communications director George Stephanopoulos.
Top White House aides were shocked to learn in 1997 that Clinton was having sex with Lewinsky because she had been constantly flirting with Stephanopoulos, now the host of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” according to historian Michael Takiff‘s upcoming book, “A Complicated Man: The Life of Bill Clinton as Told by Those Who Know Him” (Yale Press).
“We knew who she was because she used to flirt excessively with Stephanopoulos,” Clinton’s former press secretary Mike McCurry told Takiff. “She would hang around George’s office all the time, asking if she could go to Starbucks for him.”
They were even more surprised the 22-year-old intern was able to get access to the president with his security detail. McCurry said his initial reaction to the reports on the affair were, “That Monica?”
Asked by Page Six about the book’s account, Stephanopoulos responded, “No comment.” But he had a more modest recollection of his relationship with Lewinsky in his 2000 memoir, “All Too Human.”
“I vaguely remembered her as a pretty, busty, flirty intern I’d pass in the halls or see hanging out at Starbucks on weekends,” he wrote. “A few times at work, she had tried to surprise me with a double tall latte, but my assistant, Laura Capps, would stop her at the door.”
In 1999, Stephanopoulos cracked to a student group that he experienced more than just friendly advances from Lewinsky, but avoided her. “Monica Lewinsky was after me,” he said then, adding that he was “eternally grateful” his assistant kept her out of his office.
Lewinsky didn’t get back to us.