In Defence of the Other Woman: Mistresses in the Modern Age

The world is fascinated by Valerie Trierweiler, Francois Hollande's ex-partner, whose tell-all memoir has just hit British shelves. Eighteen months ago, it was reported  that the French president had been having an affair with actress Julie Gayet. Hollande abandoned Trierweller before the tabloid ink was dry. The former First Lady paid him back, though, with the astonishing Merci pour ce moment, Thank you for this Moment which has just been translated into English. What masquerades as a memoir is actually a fanged and venomous diatribe, hurled at her former partner and his lover. Hell hath no fury...

With all eyes upon her, Julie Gayet has maintained a dignified silence: in direct contrast to the conduct of her predecessor. Faced with such a mystery, we decided to take a closer look at what it means to be a modern mistress, and chose five famous historical mistress that deserve to be remembered. 

As long as there have been marriages, there have been mistresses. Geishas, royal companions, bombshells in stilettos, interns in stained blue dresses: men have always made room for Other Women. 

They are fascinating creatures, these extramarital add-ons. Historically, they were the preserve of the wealthy, who could afford the upkeep of the 'kept' woman, along with the hotel rooms, dry-cleaning bills, apology bouquets or hush-money pay-offs.

A silhouette, a bare arm in a photograph, the flutter of a fan in an opera box: a mistress is rarefied, distinct from the grubbier ‘home-wrecker’ who wishes to replace a wife (which, famously, leaves a vacancy).

But all novelistic old-world glamour aside – it’s a pretty grim existence, isn’t it? A life of sacrifice and powerlessness, securing financial stability, yet gaining only half of the man who gets you whole. 

Or is it grim? As the power of women has grown, the role of mistress has changed. The economic motivation has all but disappeared, as a greater number women have become financially independent. What remains is a state of erotic companionship: free from domestic drudgery, jealousy, propriety and immune from the messiness of divorce.  Now that a middle-aged childless woman is no longer thought of as sad, strange or selfish, and the spinster has made way for the career woman, mistress-dom could just be a desirable, comfortable compromise. The moth-eaten institute of marriage has a new breed of rival: the modern mistress.

Culture Whisper looks back at the five the greatest mistresses of all time, who made the world a brighter place.

DANGEREUSE DE L'ISLE BOUCHARD (William IX)

As her moniker suggests, this medieval mega-babe was an expert seductress.The grandmother of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Dangereuse was an accomplished trobiaritz, female troubadour, purveyor of ‘unearthly music’ who enraptured Crusade leader William (IX) the Troubadour as he made his way through Poitou in 1100.  Dangereuse was quite willingly abducted by the libidinous Duke, who was promptly excommunicated, and spent the rest of her days living in care-free sin, in the enormous tower William built in her honour, Le Maubergeonne.

MARILYN MONROE (JFK)

Up-close, she may have been a bit of a wreck, but pop-culturally the 50s sex symbol and her media-ready president made a sensational pair. Though never confirmed, the high-wattage infidelity is still mythologized six decades later: a perfect cocktail of White House Intrigue, sultry birthday wishes, and mortality – both JFK and Monroe died within a year of the alleged affair. The notion of the first lady Jackie Kennedy, wondering at the clock in her dressing gown, compounded the thrill of this dark American fairytale: a lime-lit duo who played marvellously on the razzle-dazzle 1950s imagination.

NELL GWYN (Charles II)

The court of ‘Merry Monarch’ Charles II was gloriously hedonistic and at its centre was the king’s favourite plaything, Nell Gwyn. An incarnation of the clamorous Restoration spirit, she was plucked from the stage, at that time the Crown's fishing pond for royal bedfellows, in the late 1660s. The king was smitten by her fierce beauty and fiercer intelligence, as was the poet Dryden and diarist extraordinaire Samuel Pepys, who called her his ‘Pretty, witty Nell’. She bore the king two sons, posed nude for the greatest painters of the day, and survived on three barrels of oysters a week. Not bad for a one-time orange trader.

MARION DAVIES (William Randolph Hearst)

Marion Davies, Talkie-starlet and hopelessly sad eyed It-girl, caught the attention of American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst in the late 20s. Quickly becoming the captive princess of Hearst Castle, a 60 000 square-foot pleasure dome in the Californian hills, the actress held boisterous court alongside her megalomaniac print tycoon. Invitations to ‘the Ranch’ were coveted, and among those to join her in particularly strenuous Highball benders were Churchill, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, and FDR: all while Hearst worked diligently in his study. 

JULIE GAYET (François Hollande)

The world is still gripped by the French president’s scooter-borne philanderings –and the woman at the centre of Gayet-gate is a perfectly lovely creature. The film star may be beautiful -all feminine charm, soft-eyes and nipples- but she’s also financially independent, a talented actress and has an ex-husband telling the world she’s wonderful. A thoroughly modern mistress.