10 U.S. Presidents Who Cheated on Their Wives

Politicians have never been known as the most trustworthy bunch. Despite the fact that their personal lives are often closely followed, quite often, they find themselves in a bit of a compromising position.

The so-called “Leader of the Free World” is no exception. Many U.S. presidents have been accused of cheating on their wives before, during, and even after they’ve served their terms. Here are ten of their stories.

Related: Top 10 Biggest Sex Scandals

10 Woodrow Wilson

It was during President Wilson’s courtship of his second wife that rumors began to circle that during his previous marriage, he had carried on an extramarital relationship with his longtime friend Mary Peck.

In a panic, the president asked his adviser, Edward House, to ensure that letters from himself to Peck were kept under wraps. He insisted that there was no sexual relationship happening. Still, he did admit that he had been “indiscreet in writing her letters rather more warmly than was prudent.” Spicy!

Wilson drafted a speech in case the letters were leaked, which included a passage claiming his first wife Ellen had known about the relationship and had forgiven him for it. Though there is no concrete evidence of any foul play, many take Wilson’s agitation at the discovery of the letters and his payment of mysterious White House funds to Peck as signs that the rumors were indeed true.^[1]

9 James Garfield

Most people don’t know much about America’s 20th president, James Garfield, other than that he was assassinated. Really, there isn’t much to tell. He’s considered one of the “forgotten” presidents, and it doesn’t help that he only served mere months of his term.

But to his wife Lucretia, he was the world. Lucretia and James married in 1858 and had an unusual relationship, as James was constantly gone for weeks at a time, fighting in the Civil War. Sometime in the early 1860s, James began an affair with an 18-year-old girl named Lucia Gilbert, a reporter for the Washington Post. Eventually, James confessed this to his wife, and she gave him an ultimatum: Leave her or leave Gilbert. James chose the latter, and the marriage was reportedly solid after this incident.^[2]

8 Dwight D. Eisenhower

Best known for his tirades in World War II, President Eisenhower allegedly was intimate with Kay Summersby, his temporary personal chauffeur, during a visit to England during the war. Her 1948 autobiography Eisenhower Was My Boss did not mention anything illicit, but her 1975 book Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower sure did.

There is some doubt as to whether the 1975 book was actually written by Summersby or if it was ghostwritten, as Summersby was apparently dying of cancer at the time. This autobiography claims that the original book only omitted the affair out of respect for Eisenhower, but now that he was dead and she was on her way out, she felt free to admit the truth.

There is no definitive proof that the couple ever had sex. However, most historians agree, based on letters and first-hand accounts, that they certainly had romantic feelings for each other.^[3]

7 Donald Trump

TV star-turned-politician Donald Trump has been making waves in U.S. politics since his election in 2016. From the January 6th insurrection to accusations of interfering with the 2020 election, Trump has certainly kept himself in the public eye.

Before he became interested in the presidency, Trump married supermodel Melania Knavs in 2005. Thirteen years later, after her husband had become the 45th president of the United States, news broke that Trump had had an affair with adult film actress Stephanie Gregory, also known as Stormy Daniels, in 2006.

Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to deny the accusations, which she did. Subsequently, In Touch Weekly magazine revealed that they had interviewed Daniels in 2011 when she had confessed to a year-long relationship with Trump. The article had never been published until then.

The $130,000 that Cohen paid Daniels became a scandal in and of itself, as even though the money came from Cohen personally, Trump paid the lawyer back under the guise of legal expenses. This falsification of business led to felony charges, and Trump was convicted in 2024.^[4]

6 Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Though he may not seem the type, meek Franklin Delano Roosevelt was just as much of a dog as the rest of them. In 1916, future First Lady Eleanor hired a woman named Lucy Mercer as her secretary.

Over that summer, Roosevelt and Mercer began an illicit affair that became an open secret in Washington to everyone but Eleanor. Two years later, she discovered a pack of love letters sent between the couple and threatened divorce.

Roosevelt refused, resulting in a marriage that, according to their son James, was “an armed truce that endured until the day he died.” Eleanor made clear that though she would forgive, she would not forget and went on to have her own fun. Throughout the 1932 presidential election, reporter Lorena Hickok frequently spent the night in the White House with Eleanor. Letters uncovered romantic feelings between the two women, though it cannot be proven that they ever had physical relations.^[5]

5 John F. Kennedy

It’s no secret that John F. Kennedy constantly cheated on his wife, Jackie. The president was known as quite the rover, with mistresses ranging from pop culture icon Marilyn Monroe to lowly White House secretaries. JFK’s infidelity has been mocked in movies and TV for years. As one journalist put it, as soon as he was elected into office, Jack was “consumed with almost daily sexual liaisons.”

Though most politicians and D.C. residents knew about JFK’s adventures during his presidency, the true scope of his escapades was magnified after his death in 1963. As women around the country revealed their secrets, Jackie was not surprised. Close friends and biographers of the First Lady suggest that she was entirely aware of every mistress but knew that she was loved above all and thus accepted the situation.^[6]

4 Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding once told the press, “It’s a good thing I’m not a woman; I’d always be pregnant. I can’t say no.”

And his historical record backs that up. Poor First Lady Florence Harding had to deal with her husband keeping up to seven mistresses at a time, including one of his best friend’s wives. In 2018, letters from Harding and his longtime mistress, Carrie Fulton Phillips, were uncovered and shown to the public. In addition to statements claiming he and his wife were only together in order to keep up appearances, these letters included some… steamier content.

Modern Americans aren’t the only ones who got to discover Harding’s promiscuity. In 1927, just four years after his death, alleged mistress Nan Britton revealed that her daughter, Elizabeth Ann, was Harding’s. Though there was no way to be sure back then, in 2015, DNA evidence proved that this was true.^[7]

3 Lyndon B. Johnson

Now, here’s a man who lives up to his name.

LBJ was famously a promiscuous man—just listen to the language he used when ordering custom-made pants over the telephone! Unfortunately, this confidence did not just apply to his clothing. Johnson engaged in numerous affairs throughout his marriage to Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson.

The most famous of these was the president’s relationship with socialite Alice Marsh. Marsh is notable for her political savvy. Rather than just being a side piece for Johnson, LBJ biographer Robert Caro claims that she “was valuable to him because he relied on her political advice.” He also notes that it’s likely Lady Bird knew about this 25-year-long affair, which ended due to Marsh’s opposition to the Vietnam War.

Johnson continued to see other women until the end of his life, leaving Lady Bird, as her obituary stated, “openly humiliated.”^[8]

2 Thomas Jefferson

If you’ve ever seen the musical 1776, you may think of Thomas Jefferson as an intelligent young man longing to leave the craziness of creating a democracy in order to spend time with his wife, Martha. If you’ve seen the musical Hamilton, you may think of him as a swaggering politician more concerned with money than family.

However, the truth is that Thomas Jefferson was not entirely either of those things. What he was, was a slave owner. While this itself is not necessarily unique, the fact that he also had sex with his slaves is something historians cannot say for certain about any other president.

The most famous of his “affairs” was with a girl named Sally Hemings. Only 14 when she met Jefferson, most historians agree that the relationship probably started around that time, when Jefferson was 44 (and married). In 1998, DNA evidence provided by Dr. Eugene Foster proved that at least one of Sally’s six children was a relation of Jefferson’s. However, it cannot be stated for certain that it was the president himself. That being said, the window of time of Sally’s pregnancies combined with multiple references to their sexual relationships in historical documents has led even the most admiring Jefferson fans to accept this difficult probability.^[9]

1 Bill Clinton

By far, the most famous presidential sex scandal happened in 1998, when White House intern Monica Lewinsky began a sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton.

Though it was discovered in 1998, the affair actually began back in 1996, when Lewinsky was only 22 years old to Clinton’s 49. The news broke when Lewinsky’s friend and Pentagon employee Linda Tripp, who had secretly been recording phone conversations about the affair between herself and Lewinsky, which apparently included over 10 sexual encounters (I won’t go into any details, don’t worry).

President Clinton spoke to the American public on January 26, 1998, famously stating, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.” For months, the country wondered whether this was true until Lewinsky turned over a blue dress covered in semen, the DNA of which did match the president’s.

With that, it was official: Not only did the president have an affair with an employee right there in the Oval Office, but he had lied about it under oath, therefore committing perjury. Though there were moves to impeach Clinton, the necessary two-thirds majority vote of senators was not met, and he was able to serve out his second term. Clinton’s wife, Hillary, stood by her husband and did not speak publicly about the scandal until a 2020 documentary when she revealed she “could not believe it” and was “devastated.”^[10]