It turned out that both Hillary and Bill were interested in politics. They began dating, and together worked on George McGovern’s presidential campaign the following year. Even though he lost the bid, Hillary and Bill were content with their work. Not least that they were working very well together – something Bill hoped to make that a permanent thing.
In 1973, while in England, he proposed to Hillary. Unfortunately, though, Hillary turned Bill Clinton down, telling him that she needed more time. With that said, however, she was deeply in love with him.
“Bill was in a different universe. It was a different level of connection. I felt like he was the most interesting man I ever met, and ever would meet,” Hillary said in a Hulu documentary.
Speaking with Girls star Lena Dunham in 2016, Hillary explained that she was “terrified” of losing her identity and getting lost in the “kind of wake” of “Bill’s force-of-nature-personality.” Not only that, but the aspiring young woman wasn’t sure that she was able to commit to a future in the spotlight – she knew that Bill wanted to become a politician.
A year later, Bill asked her to marry him again. But, just as the first time, she said no.
“I married my best friend”
“He said, ‘Well, I’m not asking you again until you’re ready to say yes.’ And that was a large part of the ambivalence and the worry that I wouldn’t necessarily know who I was or what I could do if I got married to someone who was going to chart a path that he was incredibly clear about,” Hillary said.
Bill gave Hillary time – and when he asked a third time, she said yes. So in 1975, the couple wed in the living room at their Arkansas home. Only a small number of family and friends attended the ceremony.
“I married my best friend. I was still in awe, after more than four years of being around her, at how smart, and strong, and loving, and caring she was,” Bill once said of their wedding day.
“It was a big leap of faith, and I think most marriages are,” Hillary added.
In 1980, the couple welcomed their first child, daughter Chelsea Clinton.
Bill and Hillary chased their political dreams, eventually making it to the White House. Bill Clinton became the Governor of Arkansas in 1978 and was inducted as President of the United States in 1993. At the same time, Hillary had become one of the country’s most influential and skilled lawyers.
However, Bill’s eight-year tenure in the White House was to be overshadowed by the big scandal involving Monica Lewinsky.
Bill Clinton – Monica Lewinsky scandal
At 22 years of age, Lewinsky began working at the White House. She and President Bill Clinton started flirting not long after she had started, and it developed into an affair that lasted for two years.
One day, Lewinsky told President Clinton: “I have a crush on you,” to which he replied, “Well, do you want to come into the back office?”
It wasn’t until 1998 that Clinton and Lewinsky’s affair became known to the world. Lewinsky’s phone had been tapped and her calls recorded in secret, and in the end, she had to testify before a grand jury. Then, finally, the report – consisting of over 3,000 pages – was made public, with all the details of Clinton and Lewinsky’s encounters.
President Clinton called her a liar, denying that he had had a relationship “with that woman.” Lewinsky said she’d do anything to, “have my anonymity back.”
“That people could read the transcripts was horrific enough,” Lewinsky said in a TED talk. “But a few weeks later the audio tapes [the recorded telephone calls] were aired on TV, and significant portions made available online. The public humiliation was excruciating. Life was almost unbearable.”
The scandal could’ve destroyed Clinton’s marriage. However, Hillary decided to stick around. In her 2003 memoir, she wrote that choosing to stay with Bill was one of “the most difficult decisions I have made in my life.”
“I couldn’t imagine how he could have done that to me”
“I was furious, I was dumbfounded, I was … just beside myself with anger and disappointment,” Hillary said in a 2003 interview with Barbara Walters. “You know, I couldn’t imagine how he could have done that to me or to anyone else.”
After leaving the White House in 2001, Bill and Hillary moved to Chappaqua, New York. There, the former president consulted several humanitarian and public policy groups while Hillary entered the political sphere.
She ran and won a seat in the Senate, serving for New York from 2001 to 2009. Then, Hillary returned to the White House, serving as Secretary of State to then-president Barack Obama. She ran for president in 2016, losing the election to Donald Trump.
Despite the tough defeat, Bill and Hillary had other, beautiful things to tend to. They became grandparents for the first time in 2014, a second time in 2016, and a third time in 2019.
Earlier this year, Hillary and Bill were seen spending some quality time with their three children as they went on a ride on the merry-go-round.
Bill Clinton & Hillary Clinton today
Despite some very difficult times, Hillary and Bill Clinton’s love is still going strong. In 2022, the couple celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. Bill Clinton took to Twitter to show his love for his wife.
“October 11th was a beautiful day 45 years ago. Still is. The bride was beautiful too. And still is,” Bill Clinton tweeted, alongside a photo of the couple.
“Happy Anniversary, Hillary. I love you.”
“Forty-five years. Never a dull moment, and you’re still my best friend,” Hillary wrote on Instagram. “Love you, Bill.”