Presidents Who Allegedly Cheated on The First Lady
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There have been 45 US Presidents in office (with 46 presidencies), and at least 14 presidents have been accused of cheating on their wives. So, nearly ? of the Presidents have been in presidential affairs. Presidential scandals are not exactly a foreign concept to the White House, we’ve seen impeachments and corruption left and right since the position was created. We’ve even seen some scandals from their first ladies, ranging from rather odd business practices to alleged affairs. However, there are a lot more presidents who have had alleged affairs over the years.
While most people know about Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, there have been alleged affairs with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and even Gerald Ford. Sometimes, their mistresses come out with tell-all books that give readers the chance to get all the juicy details first (which has happened more often than you’d think).
Some of these affairs were consensual, but an alarming amount was reportedly not consensual.
Whether it was alleged or proven, see the US Presidents who cheated on their wife below:
Warning: This post contains descriptions of sexual violence.
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John F. Kennedy
It’s no secret that John F. Kennedy was accused of having several affairs during his marriage to Jackie Kennedy, with the most infamous being Marilyn Monroe. However, multiple women have come forward, discussing the affair they had with him.
One mistress was Judith Exner, who claimed she had an abortion after becoming pregnant with Kennedy’s child in a 1988 interview via People, and detailed more about it in her memoir My Story.
Another reported mistress was Mary Pinchot Meyer. Now, this affair wasn’t made public until years after her untimely (and unsolved) murder in 1964. It was confirmed by multiple outlets that they had a brief affair, and letters between the two were even discovered at one point. In the book Mary’s Mosaic, it was even alleged that Kennedy was “smitten” with her and had her come to his parties often.
One of Kennedy’s most well-known affairs was with Mimi Alford. She was an intern at the time and claimed in her memoir Once Upon a Secret: My Affair With John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath that she had an 18-month relationship with JFK.
The story goes that Kennedy was giving her a tour of the White House, and then during the tour, he led her into his wife, Jackie’s powder-blue bedroom, where they had sex. She said, “The next thing I knew, he was standing in front of me, his face inches away, his eyes staring directly into mine,” Alford recalls being frozen as he pushed her on to the bed. “Slowly, he unbuttoned the top of my shirtdress and touched my breasts. Then he started to pull off my underwear.”
After she broke things off to be with her fiance, he tried to humiliate her and then gave her a wedding gift of $300, saying, “come back and show me,” all of which she claimed in her memoir.
Per The List, his other secretaries, Priscilla Wear and Jill Cowan, also confirmed to have affairs with him. Another alleged mistress was Diana de Vegh, whom he met when she was in college. Their affair lasted for years, starting when he was a senator. She detailed this in an essay for Air Mail.
Kennedy also allegedly had affairs with stars like Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, and Audrey Hepburn.
Per the same article from The List, there was also writer Inga Arvad, burlesque dancer Blaze Starr, and actress Gene Tierney, who said in her memoir Self-Portrait that she had an affair with Kennedy for a year,
Donald Trump
Most people know about this one: former US President Donald Trump paid off adult film star Stormy Daniel when he was campaigning for his presidency in 2016, after a sexual encounter back in 2006, one year after he and Melania Trump married.
Daniels claimed they had an intimate relationship for some time, before his time at the White House. But the reason we’re counting this is because he paid her off during his campaign.
In 2024, Trump was found guilty on all charges when this “hush-money” trial came to be.
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton has been accused of assault, harassment, and rape by numerous women over the years. But an affair? There are only a few. His biggest affair was with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. She claims they had nine sexual encounters from 1995 to 1997.
Along with that, Clinton was rumored to be in an affair with Gennifer Flowers. She claimed they had an affair for over a decade, but he claimed it was only once in 1977, per Law and Crime.
Grover Cleveland
The 22nd and 24th US President Grover Cleveland was known for misconduct during his time in office, including with infedelty.
Per History Collection, a woman named Maria Halpin bumped into him on Dec 15th, 1873. They had been seeing each other for some time, but on that night, he reportedly raped her, and threatened her if she reported the incident.
Per the Tribute via Smithsonian, “Halpin said that Cleveland had pursued her relentlessly, and that she finally consented to join him for a meal at the Ocean Dining Hall & Oyster House. After dinner, Cleveland escorted her back to her boarding house. In an 1874 affidavit, Halpin strongly implied that Cleveland’s entry into her room and the incident that transpired there was not consensual—he was forceful and violent, she alleged, and later promised to ruin her if she went to the authorities.”
It’s quite a tragic story because, per the Smithsonian, Halpin allegedly gave birth to his child, but was taken to a mental asylum and the child was adopted by another family. While he didn’t refute the claims of an affair, he reportedly denied any wrongdoing besides that.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Not only were there rumors swirling about Eleanor Roosevelt’s infidelity, but Franklin D. Roosevelt had numerous other lovers.
It’s reported he had a long-time mistress by the name of Lucy Mercer, who was Eleanor’s secretary. Eleanor confronted him about it, per Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book No Ordinary Time, and they made a deal to basically have an open marriage.
It’s said their affair started in 1916, when Eleanor and the kids were on vacation. and he often invited her to his exclusive parties. He was with Mercer until his death.
Now, another woman he allegedly had an affair with was his private secretary, Marguerite LeHand. It’s been heavily debated by historians whether or not this happened, but it’s alleged that they were in love but never consummated their affair due to Roosevelt’s disability. But FDR’s son Elliott claimed in his book An Untold Story: The Roosevelts of Hyde Park, that their romance was sexual.
Warren G. Harding
One of Warren G. Harding’s mistresses Nan Britton’s tell-all book told everyone the details of their affair after he died. The book entitled The President’s Daughter detailed how they’d often have sex in one particular closet in the White House, and how she gave birth to his daughter: a girl named Elizabeth Ann.
It’s said that their affair began after Britton became one of his secretaries.
Along with Britton, Harding was reportedly in a years-long affair with Carrie Fulton Phillips, and their affair lasted from 1905 until 1920, per CNN. Here’s the thing: she was friends with his wife Florence Harding, and apparently, it wasn’t the first time he slept with one of her pals.
Per Politico, Phillips successfully blackmailed him and received a stipend, vacations, and more.
George H. W. Bush
A bombshell expose released by The Washington Times in 1989 alleged that both male and female prostitutes would come in and out of the White House, but how much George H. W. Bush even did with these people is unknown, per History Collection.
There were also allegations that he was having an affair with his assistant, Jennifer Fitzgerald, for 12 years, but she denied this. The book The Matriarch Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty alleged this, saying how Bush’s wife, Barbara, fell into a depression because of this.
Fitzgerald was said to be “protective” of George, especially since they met during the Watergate scandal and DC was on its toes. A close source said to the Times via Heavy, “It wasn’t just another woman. It was a woman who came to exert enormous influence over George for many, many years . . . She became, in essence, his other wife . . . his office wife.”
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford allegedly had an affair with suspected German spy Ellen Rometsch, and so did JFK! Bobby Baker detailed these allegations in a 2013 interview with Politico, and apparently, J. Edgar Hoover found out about the affair and allegedly used it to blackmail Ford.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson reportedly had an affair with Alice Glass for years, even during the early years of his Presidency. And in his wife Lady Bird Johnson’s obituary, it even came out that he reportedly had an affair with a colleague named Helen Gahagan Douglas. So let’s break it down.
Johnson and Glass met back in 1939. The book The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power claimed that when they met, Glass admired Johnson because she “believed that he was unlike the other politicians who came to Longlea, and whose conversation revealed, before a weekend was over, that their only interest was personal advancement.”
She reportedly thought he shared a love for helping people, much like her. Per History, she was also allegedly having an affair with one of his biggest campaign donors. They kept their romance going until years later, when they allegedly had opposing views on the Vietnam War.
Then, from 1945 to 1951, Johnson had an affair with congresswoman Gahagan Douglas. There’s a lot of hearsay about how long their affair lasted, but, per the Oklahoman, she claimed Johnson was the father of her child and he paid support for the child for a very long time.
Now, it doesn’t stop because he also had an affair with Madeleine Duncan Brown, with whom he was romantically linked to from 1948 until the end of his presidency. According to History Collection, “Johnson provided Madeline with a house, a maid, cars, and financial support.” She allegedly gave birth to his son, a boy named Steven, in 1950, and she sued Johnson’s estate when Steven didn’t get an inheritance.
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower had an affair with his personal driver Kay Summersby, who later wrote a juicy tell-all about it called Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower. While there have been some questions about whether or not they had sex, many historians believe they were in love.
The story goes that Summersby was a model-turned-aide to Eisenhower, and their relationship allegedly started in 1942. Their affair is said to have ended in 1945.
Ronald Reagan
Before he was President of the United States, Ronald Reagan was the President of the Screen Actor’s Guild.
In a biography from Kitty Kelley entitled, Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography, it’s alleged that Selene Walters claimed he forced her to have sex with him when he came to her home randomly at 3 AM.
Walters met Reagan in the 1950s (Reagan married his wife Nancy in 1952, so he was with her throughout this time). Walter claimed Reagan showed up at her home at 3 AM, and raped her. “I opened the door,” Walters said to People. “Then it was the battle of the couch. I was fighting him. I didn’t want him to make love to me. He’s a very big man, and he just had his way.”
Thomas Jefferson
A lot has come out about Thomas Jefferson, who wasn’t a good guy, to put it delicately. Yes, he helped with the Declaration of Independence, but it’s reported that he sexually abused an enslaved woman by the name of Sally Hemmings when she was only 14 years old.
It’s believed that during their time in Paris in the late 1780s, Jefferson initiated the intimacy between the two. Historians believe he impregnated her six times, and she reportedly agreed to be his slave if their children were free, per the New York Times.
Woodrow Wilson
The 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson, allegedly had an affair with a woman named Mary Allen Hulbert, also known as Mary Peck.
Mary was a divorced woman he had met in Bermuda back in 1907. Per NDTV, he sent her around $7,500, about $183,000 in today’s money, for a business deal. During their affair, he wrote her more than 200 intimate letters, and many of their letters can be seen at The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Virginia.
Also, along with the money and latters, he reportedly sent her books and jewelry. It’s alleged that he had a backup plan in case the letters were ever published, and that his wife Ellen “knew and understood” his relationship with Mary.
The story goes that they also wrote after Wilson’s wife died, but he then married Edith Bolling Galt over Peck. Peck was often offered money to expose Wilson, but denied it. She tried to write to Wilson more, but Galt interfered, so the letters stopped for years. However, the three of them met, merely four days before Wilson collapsed while giving a speech. In 1928, Peck sold the letters and in her autobiography, The Story of Mrs. Peck, she reflected on this.
George W. Bush
In 2002, a woman named Margie Schoedinger filed a lawsuit alleging that she had been raped by George W. Bush in Oct 2000, per Salon. Schoedinger made the claims $50 million lawsuit for “race-based harassment and individual sex crimes committed against her and her husband,” according to Newsweek.
She went on to allege that he raped her, kidnapped her, and drugged both her and her husband. However, the lawsuit never persisted because, in 2003, Schoedinger tragically died by suicide.
