Monica Lewinsky writes 'It is time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress'

Monica Lewinsky, whose affair with Bill Clinton nearly ended his presidency almost 20 years ago, has broken her silence - saying it was "time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress”.

Writing in Vanity Fair, 40-year-old Lewinsky said, "I am determined to have a different ending to my story," adding it was also time to stop "tiptoeing around my past - and other people's futures."

The former White House intern stressed that while the affair was between two consenting adults, she regretted what happened.

“I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened,” she wrote.

Lewinsky said she was "troubled" by Hillary Clinton's inclination to "blame the woman" rather than her husband.

"Any 'abuse' came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position," she said in excerpts published on the magazine's website.

Their affair led to President Clinton's being impeached by the House of Representatives in 1999. The Senate acquitted him and he completed his second term in 2001.

Lewinsky, who dropped from sight after the scandal, said, "I turned down offers that would have earned me more than $10 million, because they didn't feel like the right thing to do."

"I am determined to have a different ending to my story. I've decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past. (What this will cost me, I will soon find out)," she added.

Lewinsky's full article will be published in the June issue of Vanity Fair on May 8.