Mimi Alford, JFK Affair: Six Other Alleged Mistresses

Mimi Alford, the former White House intern who recently wrote a book claiming she had an affair with President John F. Kennedy, detailed the 18-month affair in an interview with Meredith Vierra on "Rock Center" Wednesday.

Alford, 69, told Vierra that she "didn't feel guilty" about having sex with a married man, and that opening up about the affair decades later has been a relief.

"When you keep a secret, and when you keep silent about something, you do it because you think it's keeping you safe, but in fact, it's deadly," she said.

Alford is hardly the first woman who claimed or was rumored to have had an affair with the former president. Click through the slideshow below to read about some of JFK's most famous alleged mistresses.

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• Judith Campbell Exner

  In a 1988 interview with <em>People </em>magazine, Judith Exner (nee Campbell) opened up about the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/27/us/judith-exner-is-dead-at-65-claimed-affair-with-kennedy.html" target="_hplink">affair she claimed to have had with Kennedy</a>. Though released documents would later <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1999/sep/26/news/mn-14342" target="_hplink">confirm phone calls with the president and White House visits</a>, aides close to Kennedy publicly rebuked the allegations, including top aide Dave Powers."The only Campbell I know is chunky vegetable soup," <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/27/us/judith-exner-is-dead-at-65-claimed-affair-with-kennedy.html" target="_hplink">Powers said in 1991</a>. Exner, who also claimed to have had <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20098379,00.html" target="_hplink">relationships with Frank Sinatra and Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/27/us/judith-exner-is-dead-at-65-claimed-affair-with-kennedy.html" target="_hplink">wrote about her relationship with JFK</a> in her 1977 autobiography.

• Mary Pinchot Meyer

  Kennedy was also alleged to have had an affair with Mary Pinchot Meyer, a well-known <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Presence-of-Mind-Mary-Pinchot-Meyer-200812.html" target="_hplink">Washington, DC artist and C.I.A wife</a>. Less than a year after President Kennedy's assassination, Meyer was <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,285439,00.html" target="_hplink">shot and killed near her Georgetown home</a>. In 1998, journalist Nina Burleigh chronicled the affair and the circumstances surrounding Meyer's death in her book, "<a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/book/21338/a-very-private-woman-by-nina-burleigh" target="_hplink">A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer</a>."

• Marilyn Monroe

  Perhaps the most famous of JFK's alleged mistresses, Marilyn Monroe <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1209783/Madness-Marilyn-Monroe-The-affair-JFK-drug-crazed-paranoia.html" target="_hplink">met the president in February 1962</a>, when British actor Peter Lawford -- JFK's brother-in-law -- invited the star to a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1209783/Madness-Marilyn-Monroe-The-affair-JFK-drug-crazed-paranoia.html" target="_hplink">dinner party in honor of the president</a>. Lawford was also responsible for <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20089693,00.html" target="_hplink">organizing the 1962 Madison Square Garden fundraiser for JFK</a>, where Monroe gave <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Media/president-john-kennedy-marilyn-monroe-story-image/story?id=10792148#.TzQx5UzLyRk" target="_hplink">her iconic performance</a> of "Happy Birthday, Mr. President." The sultry performance fueled <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20091986,00.html" target="_hplink">rumors of an affair</a> between the movie star and the president that still live on today.

• Fiddle and Faddle

  In 1997's "The Dark Side of Camelot," investigative reporter Seymour Hersh <a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/1997-11-09/news/18051230_1_seymour-hersh-secret-service-judith-campbell-exner" target="_hplink">claimed Kennedy had a number of sexual encounters with two young staff aides</a>, known around the White House as Fiddle and Faddle. <a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/1997-11-09/news/18051230_1_seymour-hersh-secret-service-judith-campbell-exner" target="_hplink">According to Hersh</a>, one poolside dalliance was cut short when a Secret Service man alerted the president that Jackie Kennedy was planning on taking a swim. "You could see one big pair of footprints and two smaller pair of wet footprints leading to the Oval Office,'' <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1997/11/16/pool-parties-in-camelot.html" target="_hplink">a Secret Service man told Hersh</a>. In his <em>Newsweek</em> review of the book, journalist <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1997/11/16/pool-parties-in-camelot.html" target="_hplink">Evan Thomas reported</a> that JFK's affair with Fiddle and Faddle had surfaced in the news before <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1997/11/16/pool-parties-in-camelot.html" target="_hplink">during 1975 congressional hearings</a> on the abuse of executive power.

• Gunilla Von Post

  Kennedy's Swedish fling Gunilla Von Post <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/15/jfks-love-letters-to-swed_n_462687.html" target="_hplink">made headlines last March when she auctioned</a> off love letters the former president had written to her, just before he married Jackie. The love letters continued even after he was married: On June 28, 1954, a little less than a year after <a href="http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JBKO-Miscellaneous-Information/Wedding-Details.aspx" target="_hplink">marrying Jackie</a>, Kennedy <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/john-kennedy-secret-love-letters-gunilla-von-post/story?id=9836818#.TzRQPkzLyRl" target="_hplink">wrote to Von Post</a>," I might get a boat and sail around the Mediterranean for two weeks -- with you as crew." Von Post also claimed she spent one passionate week with Kennedy in August 1955.

Comments

[cayuse1]

10:01 AM on 11/19/2012

Why do I think there is a better chance JFK had sex with Lee Harvey Oswald instead of these 6 women

[Robert Lee Harrington]

12:18 AM on 07/01/2012

I thought he had a bad back....

[DIAQ]

08:53 PM on 06/30/2012

Alford opened up because she couldn't stand keeping a secret. Guess she's relieved now. Of course this had nothing to do with, how can I put it: KA-CHING

[Frank Cusumano]

11:07 PM on 02/23/2012

“Camelot” was a fantasy that Jackie created after the assassination -- as much for herself as for her husband. Read: Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onnasis, by Peter Evans; The Dark Side of Camelot, by Seymour Hirsch. Kennedy lived in another world, as do all celebrities. Why did young women throw themselves at Elvis? The normal rules did not (and stilll do not) apply. After all, his father was worth $500 Million in 1950! The Kennedy's had an entire floor at the Carlyle Hotel in NYC, and a villa rented in perpetuity in Monaco for the "summer season." And if you think JFK was so red, white and blue, read A Very Private Woman, by Nina Burleigh. I think that at this point it is beyond any doubt of JFK's promiscuity. What is of value is what he said, not what he actually did, or the fact that he did not write any of it --- not even Profiles in Courage. There are true American Ideals in those words. That is what we need to remember and venerate, not a sick pathetic drug addict and sexoholic. Just like Elvis. You can still enjoy the performance by a gifted artist.

[rfwestex]

12:54 AM on 02/14/2012

Deification of the Kennedys is a national sickness....no cure for stupid.

[jimpager]

10:13 PM on 05/31/2012

No cure for haters...JFK volunteered and fought in WWII for his country, survived the Japanese, could not survive the ambush in Dallas...nor the haters 50 years later.

[iknowscottyknows]

12:01 PM on 02/13/2012

Ask not what your President can do for you...oh, forget it!

[lotus321]

01:16 PM on 02/13/2012

ah man. Ithought you were going to end with "but how you can do your president"

[dbonedig]

08:06 PM on 02/12/2012

The Kennedy deal is only important for those who wish to dump their trash in it, collect a few pennies and walk away. Kind of like recycling centers.

[KineticR]

04:30 PM on 02/13/2012

I want people who r hoping to vote 4 a respectable & qualified Republican pres. candidate to u/stand something. U will hear supposedly knowledgeable "experts" who will say that certain charges & or facts on the lives of Newt Gingrich, Romney & Santorum disqualify them from the presidency. These same people have held Democratic Presidents F.D.R., Kennedy & Clinton to be the best we ever had. If u look 4 the truth on F.D.R., u will find moral transgressions that make Newt look like an alter boy. The point: We can agree that these were great presidents who did some shameful things; but u can still be glad & even proud that they were our presidents. What these "experts" on the left have been successful at, is leading good, hard working American voters to believe that personal transgressions, either real or exaggerated by the Democrats & the supportive media, of todays GOP candidates disqualify them. We can not let that happen anymore. We have to use our God given common sense & vote for the man best qualified to get us to the way of life we can again be thankful for.

[Carseller4]

07:27 PM on 02/12/2012

What a scummy guy.

[Michael Scala]

07:24 AM on 02/21/2012

Name one President that did'nt screw around, just one.

[Robert Lee Harrington]

12:19 AM on 07/01/2012

I'm more concerned about what a President did in The War Room than the Bed Room. (Or the Oval Office)

[philliplojek]

03:44 PM on 02/12/2012

Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Kennedy and Clinton. It seems Democrat presidents aren't faithful. Before you attack any current or past Republican candidate, please keep in mind I said Democrat PRESIDENT.

[lotus321]

01:17 PM on 02/13/2012

There is a simple rule for men. First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the booty. If you are married before you accomplish the first twom then once you accoomplish the frist tow, the desire to conquer the third repeatedly is very strong..

[pinkjuniece513]

03:15 PM on 02/12/2012

Who cares, do you know how many years JFK has been dead.

[philliplojek]

03:45 PM on 02/12/2012

Public schooled "educated" students won't know.

[theone26]

07:23 PM on 02/12/2012

Hmmm...and people who didn't get to attend school or were home schooled much like yourself would make such an assenine statement.

[Michael Scala]

07:29 AM on 02/21/2012

The same amount of years that I've been alive, I was born one month before Mr.Kennedy was assasinated. Fourty-Eight years.

[robertstone1robert]

03:13 PM on 02/12/2012

We now know who Bill Clinton was attempting to emulate. I only know of Monica Lewinsky. Were there others?

[rsttho557949]

12:44 PM on 02/12/2012

As it is written, "for nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not come to light (Luke 8:17).

It’s hard to contain news-good or bad. My feeling is that this is not some mind clearing confession, but a maneuver to cash in. I guess she is probably angry when she realized that JFK was faithful to no one. Women have had affairs with married men since mankind was created and will continue to have affairs till Jesus returns. Why should her story be anymore important than theirs? Is hers more important because the guy was president? I mean, he probably told her the same thing, “Hey, I'm not going to leave my wife (the fool says he is and leads the woman on) and if you want to spread them for me, go right ahead." She did- and "without guilt". She knew the job was dangerous when she took it. For me, I'm not interested in the same old story; powerful men will attract young women that think they actually think they are important to these men. They are important so long as they are young, have a diminished gag reflex and are on birth control.

[186000]

12:15 PM on 02/12/2012

Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike:
The shocking bit about this story is that after all these years this women is still naive and/or delusional. She was groomed to be the white house service girl, used like a wash rag and years later she still doesn't let herself in on the truth. Yet it's in every story she tells. It is surely no coincidence that she was of an upper class WASP world, a world the Kennedys were so often excluded from. She is defiled and she thinks she was chosen as 'special'. Then JFK bids her to service others and increases his jollies by watching. Regarding the perceived staleness and sordidness of the story, well sorry to say but the truth should be told about the mythic JFK. I am mortified but Jack Kennedy was no Jack Kennedy. Yet it seems that nothing can be found out that will bring people to their senses if they worshiped him in their youth. What we should have seen after the TV interview was discourse how men become like this, how JFK's attitudes toward women reflected a sickness in the culture, and how we are still working to correct these. Instead the regular camp followers were trotted out to reminds us of good deeds. That was nearly as pathetic as Ms. Alford. We can only hope that young women in the future will not as naive as Ms. Alford was and remains.

[anneeger]

05:30 PM on 02/12/2012

I do appreciate that Ms.Alford came forward. I am about the same age and I can understand how she got in that situation and was not able to see what was happening to her. JFK was such an icon at that time and as she was so inexperienced she thought that he really liked her.
What makes me furious is that so many {especially} women are attacking her , including Barbara Walters and her co-hosts on the View, while if they would be honest, they probably had similar experiences in their youth. After all we are talking about the sixties.
I have always been mystified by the collective willingness to put nearly all presidents on a pedestal despite the fact that they were alll deeply flawed. In the case of the Kennedy clan, it is especially evident. How many more sordid stories have to come out before people stop believieving in the fairy tale? They always call the Kennedys American royalty. And rightly so. I have never had any respect for royalty because I like history. The U.S. is supposedly proud to have gained indepence from that system, maybe it is time to gain independence from the Kennedys.

[Kay Skylar]

11:21 PM on 02/19/2012

I, too, was furious about the way Barbara Walters treated Ms. Alford. How dare she be so rude and condescending when she had also had an affair with a married man (senator) and wrote about it in her own biography. And Walters was old enough to know better when she slept with another woman's husband. Walters is a hypocrite who goes to any length to lie about her elite friends to protect them and attacks those who tell the truth about them. She is no journalist. She needs to retire before she further sullies her reputation.

[Born to be riled]

02:09 AM on 02/12/2012

At least her secret service years were more successful than her brethrens'.

[Aunoriasmama]

01:51 AM on 02/12/2012

We all know, by now, that JFK had the morals of a skunk (male skunks will mate with female skunks regardless if they're in heat or not) but this is ridculous. 49 years after his death, Mim Alford comes forward and says, "Oh by the way, I was JFKs mistress". Who gives a s**t? Like he had all this time to have all these women at the same time!!!

[Christina Arasmo]

02:31 AM on 10/21/2012

I wonder if anyone has done a timeline to see what's up. I also doubt he had the time and he also had a bad back. Then again, I also read his list of meds for his Addison's disease, one of which was testosterone pills. Testosterone makes a person less empathetic, more aggressive, and randy as well.