All the presidents' women: a not-so-secret sexual history

With Valentine's Day here, spring is not far behind, and for married male politicians that means sex scandals. British politicians have long been portrayed as being pre-eminent in sordid, career-ending affairs, while their US counterparts are painted as keener to acquire wealth than adoring or acrobatic mistresses.

Yet the litany of licentiousness of Washington's politicians can easily hold its own against any record Westminster can provide.

Bill Clinton, of course, has been enshrined forever on the Mount Rushmore of raunchiness, due to his scandalous affair with the thong-snapping intern Monica Lewinski. But such tawdry tales did not begin with Mr Clinton. In fact, almost since the birth of the US, American politicians have stood groin deep in sexual scandals.

Thanks to a loving wife - and perchance those wood and whalebone teeth - the country's first president, George Washington, was forever faithful to Martha.

But Thomas Jefferson, the young nation's third president, had a passionate affair with a beautiful woman named Sally Hemmings for 18 years. Jefferson was a widower at the time, so this wouldn't have been considered a scandal by today's standards. But this was 1802, and the southern-born president was sleeping with one of his own slaves. For nearly 200 years, historians dismissed the rumours as scurrilous gossip spread by Jefferson's enemies. But in 1998, DNA testing confirmed Jefferson was the father of at least one of Hemmings' sons.

Fast forward eight decades to 1884 and the presidency of Democrat Grover Cleveland. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Cleveland was a 47-year-old bachelor when he made his run for the White House. His opponents hoped to close down his campaign by accusing him of fathering an illegitimate son a decade previously, the result of a secret affair with a sales clerk.