Gennifer Flowers' message for Bill Clinton 34 years on, why she supports Trump...and her new life as the 'Blonde Bombshell of the Big Easy'

By NICK ALLEN, US NEWS EDITOR (POLITICS) Published: 20:40, 11 June 2026 | Updated: 20:45, 11 June 2026 It has been more than three decades since Gennifer Flowers became the woman who almost derailed Bill Clinton's presidency before it had even begun. In January 1992, the former local TV reporter came forward with claims that she had a 12-year extramarital affair with Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas and frontrunner for the Democratic White House nomination.  The Clinton machine went into overdrive, and Flowers was held up as a threat to his Oval Office ambitions and denounced by his allies as a 'bimbo.' Bill and Hillary Clinton went on 60 Minutes straight after the Super Bowl to deny her claims in an interview watched by a staggering 40 million viewers. It was credited with saving Clinton's campaign - and introducing the world to Hillary as she held her husband's hand and said: 'You know, I'm not sitting here some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.' Six years later, in a sworn deposition, Clinton admitted to having a sexual encounter with Flowers in 1977. Looking back now, Flowers, 76, told the Daily Mail that being in the eye of the media storm was 'horrible.' 'It just took on a life of its own and it was like riding a bull without a book of instructions,' she said by phone in a charming Southern drawl. Gennifer Flowers at a famous news conference on January 27, 1992, at which she claimed to have had a 12-year affair with then-Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton 'It was really a huge challenge to survive because I was just a little girl with one lawyer up against the most powerful structure in the world. It was not only tough on me but my family, my mother. But I was raised to throw my shoulders back and put my dukes up and that's what I did. 'I made a lot of mistakes. I would, if I had it over again, do some things differently, but I didn't have a precursor of someone that had gone through it.' Flowers felt great sympathy for intern Monica Lewinsky when that scandal erupted in 1998. 'Monica Lewinsky, in her interview with Barbara Walters, said the first thing she did was get my book [Gennifer Flowers: Passion and Betrayal] and read it because I gave a series of things that I would have done differently, and she followed that to the T,' she said. 'I was a bit older. I was 42 when the story broke. I'd already had some life experiences. I couldn't imagine going through what Monica Lewinsky did at her age and survive. She's done a great job, really. She should be proud of herself, and we all should be proud of her. 'As strong as I am, there were times that I thought: "If this is my life, I'm not sure that I want to keep going through it," but I had people that loved me and believed in me.' As #MeToo emerged years later, Flowers said she was struck by how little support there had been for her and other women in the 1990s. Bill and Hillary Clinton appear on 60 Minutes in 1992 to discuss Flowers as he runs for president for the first time. The program drew 40 million viewers 'When MeToo happened, I said we were the me-nots. Nobody seemed to care about us, and I thought that was very unfortunate. 'When my story broke, and Bill's people were labeling us bimbos, I thought the women's groups would come out of the woodwork and support us: "How dare you call them bimbos?" Oh, no. They didn't do a darn thing. 'Their whole agenda was whichever party was for abortion, that's who they supported. It was all about the abortion issue, so we just got no support whatsoever.' In contrast to her reaction to Lewinsky, Flowers has little sympathy for Hillary, and admits to having had mixed feelings during her 2016 presidential campaign.  'Oh, Lord, well, I would like nothing more than to see a female as president of the United States first of all,' Flowers, who is now a singer, said. 'But not her. She professes to be an icon of women's rights, and she is totally the opposite. She says and does what she needs to do to accomplish whatever goal she's after. And so, needless to say, I didn't want to see her elected. 'I like Donald Trump, too. I like him, so I just had ambivalent feelings because I always thought that would be great to have a woman president, but not her.' Flowers, now a singer, performs at her club in the French Quarter of New Orleans  Clinton on the campaign trail in January 1992 when the story broke 'I would have supported anybody over Hillary Clinton,' she said. 'This woman would like to have seen me in a ditch dead, so I have no sympathy for her. She sure doesn't for me. And I understand that I messed with her husband, and that was wrong, but she didn't care.' During the 2016 campaign, Trump publicly floated the idea of seating Flowers near the front row at a debate with Hillary after the Clinton campaign invited Mark Cuban.  Flowers told the Daily Mail that a plane had been arranged but her mother was sick, so she could not go. Perhaps surprisingly, however, Flowers remembers Bill Clinton with a complicated fondness. He was, she said, 'really, so cute, he was just darling.'  But she has been taken aback by his recent appearance. 'I think he needs to eat a hamburger and drink some milk. He looks horrible,' she said. 'He's about vegetarian and no dairy and, my God, the man looks like the walking dead, you know. Go get an ice cream. Help yourself, quick. Flowers says MeToo was not there for her in the 1990s 'I thought Bill was a pretty good president, actually,' she said. 'I thought, overall, he did a pretty good job, but I think Donald's doing a better job. 'I heard he had a heart attack or a stroke or something to that effect, and I guess he's doing this to try to live a little longer.' Politically, she has been on a long journey and, having previously voted Democrat, supports Trump, including on the Iran war. 'If we get blown away by nukes, it's not going to matter what the price of groceries are in the grocery store, and I think that's probably his way of thinking.' Amid the intense media scrutiny in 1992, her life flipped on a dime. She felt she could not go back to Little Rock, Arkansas, and sent a moving company to take her possessions to Dallas. There, she moved into the same building where the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's son, Mark, happened to live. Three years later, she published her memoir and went on to appear in numerous TV shows and movies as herself. Flowers wanted a woman to be president but not Hillary, and supported Donald Trump Far from the chaos of Little Rock and Washington, she has built a new life in New Orleans and is still thriving on stage. She was also a guest announcer at WrestleMania and was in the Off-Broadway comedy hit Boobs! The Musical, based on the songs of Ruth Wallis, in 2004. These days, Flowers is grandmother to a six-year-old and four-year-old, who call her 'Grammy.' 'They're just wonderful, a hoot,' she said. Despite being in her eighth decade of life, she performs songs and comedy at her own club in the heart of the French Quarter, where she is proudly known as 'the blonde bombshell from The Big Easy!' 'I love it. It's what I know, and I love doing it,' Flowers said. 'My club is beautiful. It attracts a huge amount of tourists. I've had nine foreign countries represented in the room. 'I've always been in the entertainment business - until the situation with Bill, because that just nipped everything in the bud.'   But the shadow of the Clinton scandal, she said, still follows her. Flowers praised Monica Lewinsky, above, who had an affair with Clinton in the 1990s The shadow of the Clinton scandal, Flowers says, still follows her three decades on Flowers is thinking about selling the Kelsto Club, her cabaret, piano bar and restaurant. She says she has been refused an entertainment license and believes the decision is 'totally political.'  'To this day, in some form or another, I run into that sort of thing sometimes. Sometimes I feel like fighting, and sometimes I don't.' No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.