President Clinton and Mrs Hillary Clinton have protested to People magazine about a cover story featuring their daughter, Chelsea.
The Clintons in a statement said they were profoundly saddened at the magazine's decision to run the article on Chelsea "despite personal appeals with respect to her privacy and her security from her parents."
The cover of the magazine, to be published in mid-February, shows Mrs Clinton and Chelsea with the headline "Grace under pressure", and describes the article as an "intimate look" at the deep love and bonds between them.
In their statement, the Clintons said: "For over six years, the media has understood and respected the unique situation facing Chelsea as she grows up in the spotlight focused on her parents. We have been very grateful for the media's restraint in allowing Chelsea the privacy that any young person needs and deserves."
Ms Carol Wallace, managing editor of People, yesterday defended publishing the article about Chelsea. "We feel that because she is an eyewitness to the family drama and historical events unfolding around her, she is a valid journalistic subject."
The US media generally respected the wish for privacy concerning Chelsea while she was a schoolgirl living in the White House. But after she became a student at Stanford University in 1997 there was increased coverage of her activities, including stories about her boyfriend and her health.
Administration officials said they did not believe there were any startling revelations in the magazine article but the Clintons were concerned about its prominence. "There's never been a cover story on Chelsea," said Ms Marsha Berry, spokeswoman for Mrs Clinton.
Ms Berry said the statement by the Clintons was not intended to dispute any particular detail in the article. "It's just that it exists at all," she said.
Both mother and daughter have stood by the President throughout the year-long Lewinsky scandal, despite their personal disappointment about his admission in August that he had misled them about the affair.
Mr Clinton's half-brother, Mr Roger Clinton, has said that Chelsea has been "deeply shaken" by the scandal surrounding her father, who is now on trial in the Senate. "Despite her good humour and her happiness, Chelsea has been deeply shaken by this whole thing. Like Bill. Like Hillary," Mr Roger Clinton said in an interview with Paris-Match in November.