What were the exact words Bill Clinton used to deny the affair with Monica Lewinsky?

1. The public, memorable denial: the exact wording most cited

In the nationally broadcast statements and news reporting that crystallized public memory, Clinton said the sentence that entered political folklore almost word-for-word: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." He followed that with, "I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never," a pair of linked sentences that formed the public denial widely reproduced by mainstream outlets such as TIME and contemporaneous transcripts ^{[1] [4]}.

2. Denials under oath and the legal wrinkle of definitions

Before the public statement, Clinton had answered questions in a sworn deposition in the Paula Jones case and later before a grand jury, where investigators introduced a specific, statutory definition of "sexual relations" and then asked whether he had engaged in such relations with Monica Lewinsky; in those proceedings he denied having a sexual relationship as defined and used in the questioning ^[2]. Legal scholars and later reporting underscore that the precise wording and the introduced definition were decisive to whether certain denials constituted perjury, an issue central to Kenneth Starr’s investigation and the impeachment articles ^{[2] [5]}.

3. The admission that followed and how it reframed the denial

Weeks after the denials, under mounting evidence including forensic testing of a dress and grand jury testimony, Clinton acknowledged an "improper physical relationship" in grand jury testimony and later described the matter publicly as "not appropriate," which became his formal partial admission and reframed the earlier denial in the court of public and legal opinion ^{[6] [3]}. Contemporary timelines and government archives document the sequence: initial public denials, the Starr inquiry producing documentary and DNA evidence, and the August 1998 statements of admission ^{[3] [6]}.

4. Why the exact words mattered — semantics, strategy, and scandal

Commentators then and since have emphasized that the specific phrasing mattered because it combined a blunt public denial with legal denials that relied on definitions, a strategy that advisers labored over and rehearsed according to press reconstructions of White House strategy sessions; TIME and other outlets reported that the famous one-liner was part of an intentional effort to deliver a plain, unambiguous denial to "stanch the wound" ^[1]. Legal analysis later focused on whether the words, considered alongside the legal definition provided in depositions, constituted willful falsehood — a question at the heart of perjury and obstruction inquiries ^[2].

5. Sources, perspectives and limitations of the record

Primary public sources for the exact phrasing are contemporaneous news transcripts and archived White House materials, as collected by outlets like TIME and archival repositories ^{[1] [7]}, while law review and scholarly accounts unpack the sworn testimony and statutory definitions used in depositions ^[2]. Reporting and retrospective documentaries add context about advisers' roles and the later admissions, but public sources vary in emphasis — some foreground the theatrical, quotable denial ^{[1] [4]}, others emphasize legal semantics and evidence that led to the reversal ^{[2] [3]}. If more precise, time-stamped transcript lines beyond these widely reported sentences are required, the White House archived statements and court transcripts are the primary records; the present reporting confirms the widely circulated wording but does not reproduce every word of every sworn Q&A beyond the cited phrases ^{[7] [2]}.