6 Surprising Presidential sex scandals in American history
In the
United States with its heritage of puritan principles and not so puritan
practices, sex scandals have figured in presidential politics since the early
Republic, striking at the most and least distinguished of American presidents.
Thomas
Jefferson
He was born
on April 13, 1743– July 4, 1826, was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer,
architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the 3rd president of
the United States from 1801 to 1809.
He was the
first president to have a sex scandal in 1802, when he denied having an affair
with his slave, Sally Hemings, and having a family with her. Jefferson's wife
had died while he was vice president and he held a large plantation estate in
Virginia. But let’s be clear on the historical facts of this situation, she
didn’t have any legal rights, nor was she allowed to deny Jefferson’s “unwanted
sexual advances.”
In 1998, a
DNA test provided credible evidence that the former president fathered at least
one of Hemings’ children.
Grover
Cleveland
He was born
on March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908, was an American lawyer and politician who
served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889
and again from 1893 to 1897.
In July
1884, Cleveland had gotten a woman named Maria Halpin pregnant possibly by rape
then sent her to an insane asylum and put up their child for adoption.
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.”
It became
the best known sex scandal in presidential history, leading the Republicans to
chant, “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?” When Cleveland won the election, the Democrats
answered, “Gone to the White House, ha! ha! ha!”
He was born
on November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923, was the 29th president of the United
States serving from 1921 until his death in 1923.
Nan Britton,
his mistress, accused him of conceiving their lovechild in the closet of the
Senate cloakroom before he ran for the presidency in 1920.
In 1927, a
woman named Nan Britton ignited a presidential sex scandal with her book, The
President’s Daughter. Britton claimed that she had had a six year affair and a
child with former President Warren G. Harding. But a recent DNA test found that
he did indeed father a child with Britton.
He was born
on January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945, often referred to by his initials FDR,
was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the
United States from 1933 until his death in 1945.
When
President Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12, 1945, he was not
with his wife but with his mistress. Eleanor Roosevelt was in Washington, D.C.,
while Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd was with the president at his cottage in Georgia.
Roosevelt
carried out a longtime affair with his wife Eleanor's secretary, Lucy Mercer.
The affair likely began in 1916. Eleanor offered to divorce Roosevelt when she
found love letters from Mercer in his suitcase, but she and Roosevelt stayed
married.
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He was born
on May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963, often referred to by his initials as JFK
or by the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th
president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination near the end
of his third year in office.
Kennedy said
his father, Joseph Kennedy, told his sons to get "laid as often as
possible." Kennedy enjoyed multiple affairs during his marriage. He
allegedly courted strippers, college students, White House interns and
secretaries, and socialites. But Kennedy’s most famous affair never
definitively proven was with movie star Marilyn Monroe.
Rumors about
Kennedy’s affair with Monroe began on May 19, 1962, when the movie star sang
“Happy Birthday” to the president at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Monroe breathily offered birthday wishes to Kennedy while wearing a
figure-hugging dress covered in shimmering crystals. After she finished,
Kennedy quipped: “I can now retire from politics after having had ‘Happy
Birthday’ sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way.”
Marilyn
Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose on Aug. 4, 1962, and an assassin killed
John F. Kennedy less than a year later on Nov. 22, 1963.
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Bill
Clinton
He was born
on August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president
of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
The most
high-profile incident involved his affair with Monica Lewinsky, though women
such as Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey, Elizabeth War Gracen,
and Juanita Broaddrick all levied accusations of sexual misconduct against him.
Clinton
stood accused of having an affair with a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica
Lewinsky. In fact, he had conducted an 18-month affair with Lewinsky.
On Jan. 26,
1998, President Bill Clinton went on TV to address rumors of a presidential sex
scandal. They were false, he declared. “I did not,” the president said, “have
sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” But blue dresses, cigars and
berets never looked the same again to the American public.
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