The Top 20 Most Notorious Mistresses
"Kept" women or paramours or seductress - whatever we call them, "mistress" is a loose term! Here we cherry-picked 20 of the most notorious mistresses of all times, with special commentary from Gossip Girl Liz Smith, financial columnist Jean Chatzky and Sesame Street founder Joan Ganz Cooney. And let's not be so judgmental. As Liz puts it, "Listen, women have had to use all that they have to survive and get ahead in a world where history often casts them as some powerful man's fancy."
Tiger Woods was knocked off his pedestal in late 2009 when a slew of other women claimed sexual relationships with the married PGA star. Ladylove and cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs grabbed the most attention, and she apparently leveraged the publicity to land a photo shoot in Maxim magazine. (Click here to view the full gallery on Maxim.com.) Club promoter Rachel Uchitel, seemingly Tiger's favorite, also merits mention, as Tiger reportedly paid her $1 million to keep quiet.
Stupidly Standing By Your Man
Was the 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, a "mistress" per se? According to wOw contributor Joan Ganz Cooney, she "wasn't Clinton's mistress exactly but it's hard to top nearly bringing a president down because of a need to blab and not having a dress cleaned." Also worth noting, Gennifer Flowers pocketed a chunk of change for sharing details of her alleged 12-year romance with former President Bill Clinton. The affairs, while controversial and headline-grabbing, did not damage his life too much. Clinton won the presidency (twice) and has remained married to wife Hillary, our current Secretary of State.
Who do you think is the most notorious mistress from history?
Duchess of Cornwall Camilla Parker Bowles first set eyes on Prince Charles in 1970. Then Charles was a bachelor, dating several potential princesses. It was believed the prince wished to wed Camilla, but his royal family deemed her unsuitable. So Charles married Diana Frances Spencer, a beautiful kindergarten teacher of royal descent. Despite having a lovely wife and two beautiful sons, Charles lusted for his first love, Camilla, and they carried on an affair that was later made highly public in books and tabloids. The fling was no surprise to wife Princess Di though. Several years before her tragic death, she said the reason for her divorce was because "there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
Click here to see the rest of our notorious mistresses
[Photo Credit: Wikipedia]
