A former Miss America said Tuesday she had consensual sex with Bill Clinton 15 years ago when he was Arkansas governor, saying she opted to disclose it now to stop Clinton foes from alleging he forced the encounter.
Elizabeth Ward Gracen, 37, a Russellville, Ark., native who stars in the syndicated television program "Highlander," said in a New York Daily News interview: "I had sex with Bill Clinton, but the important part to me is that I was never pressured."Gracen described her one-time fling with Clinton as a "very bad error in judgment" and said she decided to come forward to rebut charges in the Paula Jones case that Clinton had sexually assaulted Gracen.
Jones alleges that Clinton exposed himself to her and asked her for oral sex in a Little Rock, Ark. hotel room in 1991 when he was Arkansas governor and she was a low-level state employee. Clinton has denied her accusations.
In her Daily News interview, Gracen said her tryst with Clinton took place in Little Rock in 1983 - a year after her reign as Miss America when he and she were married to others.
"We had an intimate evening. Nothing was ever forced. It was completely consensual," she said. "This is something I don't want to talk about at all. It's no one's business."
A White House spokesman declined to respond to Gracen's assertion, saying: "We don't comment on a 15-year old story."
Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky have each denied having sex, and the president has also denied pressuring Lewinsky to lie.