7 Mistresses of Famous Men in History

Some of the most powerful men in the world had mistresses, even during the crucial times of their leadership. However, these affairs could only remain secret for a while, often spawning rumors.

Rich and powerful men have been known to have their pick of relationships outside of marriage and, oftentimes, the objects of their desire were well-known personalities, too.

Here is a list of seven mistresses of famous men in history:

1. Kay Summersby — Dwight Eisenhower was rumored to have had an affair with his Jeep driver, Summersby, when he was the supreme Allied commander of the European Front during World War II. Gen. George Marshall, the Army’s chief of staff, allegedly said he would bust Eisenhower out of the Army if he divorced his wife, Mamie, to marry Summersby. The affair overshadowed Summersby’s heroic experiences in the war, including surviving a torpedo attack from a German U-boat, writes Carlo D’Este in Armchair General.

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2. Elizabeth Cooper — Gen. Douglas MacArthur first met the Filipina actress, born Isabel Rosario Cooper, while assigned to the Philippines in the late 1920s. He secretly arranged for her to move into an apartment in Washington, D.C., when he was appointed chief of staff by President Hoover in 1930, according to Filipi Know. He eventually ended the relationship when rumors began circulating. Cooper tried to establish a career in Hollywood, but committed suicide in 1960.

3. Lucy Mercer — Franklin Roosevelt’s affair with Mercer (later Rutherfurd) reportedly lasted from 1916 to 1918, but it may have resumed through FDR’s presidency until his death in 1945, according to Joseph E. Persico, author of “Franklin & Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life,” The New York Times reported. It is also believed she, not wife Eleanor, was with the president when he died in Warm Springs, Georgia.

4. Nan Britton — She reportedly gave birth to Warren G. Harding’s illegitimate daughter in 1919. DNA testing later proved it was indeed Harding’s child, decades after Britton announced it while Harding was president and wrote about it in a tell-all book, “The President’s Daughter.” Harding died while in office in 1923, but Nan and the daughter, Elizabeth Ann, were left out of the will, Robert Plunkett reported in Time magazine.

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5. Judith Exner and Co. — John F. Kennedy’s rumored affairs range from actresses Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich to stripper Blaze Starr and White House intern Mimi Alford. His alleged affairs first received widespread attention after the name Judith Campbell (later Exner) came up in the 1970s during a Senate committee investigation into CIA-Mafia connections. She claimed JFK had her arrange meetings with mob boss Sam Giancana to help with his presidential campaign.

6. Marion Davies — Publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s reported affair with the actress Davies was always one of Hollywood’s juiciest stories. There were even whispers of a love child. “Hollywood of the 1920s once buzzed with rumors that a child had been born of the scandalous affair so publicly conducted by Hearst and Davies — the eccentric newspaper monarch and his actress mistress,” the Los Angeles Times reported in 1993. “But the little blond girl who lived in the margins of the publishing dynasty was always introduced as ‘the niece of Miss Marion Davies.’”

7. Sally Hemings — Though historians are split on the issue, it is rumored that President Thomas Jefferson carried on a sexual relationship with one of his multiracial slaves named Sally and may have fathered one or all of her six children. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation commissioned a study on the issue and released a research report in 2000 with the following finding: “Although paternity cannot be established with absolute certainty, our evaluation of the best evidence available suggests the strong likelihood that Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings had a relationship over time that led to the birth of one, and perhaps all, of the known children of Sally Hemings.”

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