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11 Secrets About Presidents' Sex Lives You Never Realized You Wanted to Know
Being the most powerful person in the United States is hard work. Holding what might be the highest-pressure job in the whole world could make even the strongest of us bend; being an object of perpetual moral scrutiny only makes it worse. Though many did their utmost to conceal the sex presidents had in the White House, it comes as little surprise that the history of past presidents of the United States is studded with a plethora of scandals of the… biblical sense.
Without further ado, in honor of Jenna Bush’s admission that she enjoyed “hanky panky” on the White House roof, here’s what we know about the sex lives of our past Commanders-in-Chief.
Thomas Jefferson
Not-so-secretly — but deeply controversially — the third U.S. president enjoyed a relationship with his wife’s half-sister, a mixed-race slave named Sally Hemings, after his wife died. The two had six children.
James Buchanan
The 15th president was rumored to have been gay – which may have been because he was the first (and only) unmarried president.
Ulysses S. Grant
The 18th president was a never-nude before being a never-nude was cool. Legend has it that Grant prided himself on nobody having seen him naked since he was little. Which is a little weird, considering he had a wife and child.
Warren G. Harding
More like Warren G. Hard-on, amirite? (I am so sorry). According to several sources, Harding was rumored to have had so many affairs his wife may have killed him over them.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
It’s widely known that FDR had an illicit relationship with his wife’s social secretary, Lucy Mercer. So not-secret, in fact, that Eleanor tried to get a divorce from her husband — but it never quite worked out.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The 34th president was so in love with his driver, Kay Summersby, that he tried to ask for a divorce. Still, it’s unclear whether Eisenhower ever actually had sex with Summsby.
John F. Kennedy Jr.
Tales of JFK’s affairs are plentiful. His most famous alleged mistress was, of course, actress Marilyn Monroe. While nothing has ever been confirmed, rumor has it the two would spend nights together in secret.
Lyndon B. Johnson
The 36th president and JFK’s replacement was rumored to have had an extensive affair with Madeleine Brown, with whom he had a child. He also bragged about his equipment — a LOT.
Bill Clinton
The age-old presidential tryst story: the 42nd president came under fire for his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He’s also run into accusations of sexual misconduct with Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, and Elizabeth Ward Gracen.
George W. Bush
Dubya has a couple of skeletons in his closet. The 43rd president was accused of having a year-and-a-half-long affair with a stripper in 1999.
