Those who’ve held the highest office in the U.S. have come from a number of different backgrounds and campaigned on myriad different issues over the centuries.
Behind closed doors, however, many shared a single scandalous trait—they cheated on their wives, both in and out office.
While some turned into legacy-defining scandals, like , deemed she wasn’t being truthful. Bush and his wife Laura have been married since 1977.
Bill Clinton
Bill and Hillary Clinton during a candle-lighting ceremony in 1998.
Reuters
Perhaps the president most infamous in-office White House affair belongs to Bill Clinton, whose scandal with West Wing intern Monica Lewinsky engulfed U.S. political news in the late 1990s and was the central impetus behind his impeachment trial. Aside from Lewinsky, who Clinton conceded went down on him in the Oval Office, scores of other women have accused Clinton of sexual assault and rape. That includes alleged affairs and assaults involving Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Leslie Millwee, all of which allegedly occurred while he was married to Hillary Clinton, who he wed in 1975. Despite the allegations, Clinton survived his impeachment trial and never faced criminal charges.
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy at their wedding in 1953.
Reuters
John F. Kennedy was known as a womanizer in Washington well before he set foot in the Oval Office in 1961, and rumors of affairs followed him into his presidency. Following his assassination in 1963, several women—ranging from college students to White House staffers—said publicly that they’d had affairs with Kennedy. Those rumors were addressed by his wife, Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy Onassis, on a number of occasions. That included her conceding that she knew her former husband would go skinny dipping with White House secretaries. For his 45th birthday, Kennedy was famously serenaded by Marilyn Monroe—sparking rumors that the era’s premier movie star and sex symbol had hit it off with the president. Those rumors never materialized into anything more than that, and those close to Monroe, including her biographer, Donald Spoto, said the two met only a handful of times.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird pose for photographers in 1955.
Getty Images
Like his predecessor, Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson was said to have had a number of affairs both before and during his presidency that his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, was aware of. While president, Johnson was said to have had an affair with the White House staffer Helen Gahagan Douglas and with another unnamed woman, whom he even paid child support after she claimed a child was his, The Oklahoman reported in 1999. Citing an interview a reporter had with Lady Bird, the paper reported that Johnson “collected” women and “felt entitled to their services.” That article also referred to Johnson as a “sexual gorilla,” adding that his treatment of White House staffers would have been considered sexual harassment by the 1990s.
