Fact Check

Did Monica Lewinsky Have a Son Who Was Found Dead in New York City?

Articles reporting that Lewinsky's son "David" had been reported missing and was subsequently found dead in Central Park are fake.

Published May 16, 2017

 (Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com)
Image Via Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com
Claim:
Monica Lewinsky's son "David" was found dead in Central Park.

On 16 May 2017, TheLastLineOfDefense.org published two articles appearing to report that Monica Lewinsky's son, "David", had been reported missing in New York, and subsequently found dead in Central Park:

The body of Monica Lewinsky’s son, David, was found in Central Park just hours after he was discovered to be missing. The 28-year-old David had just left a casual breakfast with his half-sister, Chelsea, and was last seen turning into an alley near 3rd.

Police on the scene say David succumbed to asphyxia after his throat closed when he was stung by a bee. He was found with two EpiPens, but both were empty. David’s medical history reveals that he is highly allergic to bee stings. So why would he go through Central Park without an EpiPen and what the hell was he doing near 3rd in an alley?

These stories are entirely fabricated. We could find no evidence that Lewinsky, who is 43 years old, has a 28-year-old son named David, or a son of any name or age.

The photograph used to illustrate the purported discovery of David's body is in fact taken from a legitimate article in the New York Daily News about the discovery of the body of a homeless man in Central Park.

The stories also bear some of the clear hallmarks of fake news — a purportedly deceased person is given no last name, and no official sources are named or provided, despite claims about a missing person, a lawsuit, and even a cause of death.

The 16 May 2017 stories on Last Line of Defense are both fake, as are all stories on the site, which carries the following helpful disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER: America’s Last Line of Defense is a satirical publication that uses the imagination of liberals to expose the extreme bigotry and hate and subsequent blind gullibility that festers in right-wing nutjobs. We present fiction as fact and our sources don’t actually exist. Names that represent actual people and places are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and do not in any way depict reality.

Dan Mac Guill is a former writer for Snopes.