The former first lady described the incident in an interview with CBS News alongside her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, while promoting their new Apple TV+ docuseries “Gutsy.”
“I was sitting on a couch and the press was let in,” Clinton said, describing an event during a trip to Brazil when she was first lady. “There were a bunch of them, shooting up.”
“And all of a sudden, the White House gets alerted to these billboards that show me sitting down with, I thought, my legs together. But the way it’s shot, it’s sort of suggestive.”
Clinton said that incident was the first of several moments where she felt uncomfortable with the angle and positioning of photographers at her public events, which she said she “couldn’t deal with” and inspired the switch from to pantsuits.
The former secretary of state, US Senator and presidential candidate also said the most challenging decision in her life was to stay married to former President Bill Clinton after it was revealed he’d had an extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton told CBS staying in her marriage was a harder challenge than running for president.
“It was really hard, and as you know, everyone had an opinion about it,” Clinton said. “People who I’d never met had very strong opinions about it. And it took a lot of, honestly, prayer and thoughtfulness and talking to people I totally trusted to really think through.”
“Because it was all being done in public,” she added. “So it made it even more painful and difficult, but I have no regrets.”
Growing up in the White House
Chelsea Clinton talked about the challenges of growing up in the public eye. Her father was governor of Arkansas when she was born, and she turned 13 the year he was sworn in as president. she recalled an incident during her father’s first presidential campaign where a protester accosted her family. The incident was an example of “really active, hateful rhetoric and actions” that informed her childhood.
“I remember in ’92 when my father was running for president and someone threw a bag filled with, probably red food coloring, but they said, you know, ‘This is the blood of an aborted baby.’ Like, ‘This should have been you,” she said.
The mother and daughter partnered up to produce a documentary profiling “gutsy women” across a variety of industries and walks of life. One episode features an interview with comedian Amy Schumer discussing the challenges of being a woman in Hollywood, and another has the two chatting and painting with rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
Hillary Clinton said the series is meant to highlight strong women who are “determined” to achieve their goals and help others.
“I think a gutsy woman is determined to make the most of her own life but also to try to use whatever skills, talents, persistence that she has to bring others along,” she said.
The first episode of “Gutsy” debuts on Apple TV+ on September 9.
