Top 10 Sex Scandals Throughout History

1. Top 10 Sex Scandals Throughout History From Cleopatra To Clinton, Lust Has Moved Leaders And Brought Down Governments By Norman Webster, Canwest News Service "Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse. He will go to any length for it---risk fortune, character, reputation, life itself.“ Mark Twain

2. 1. Cleopatra dazzles visiting Romans. First Julius Caesar, then Mark Antony fall for the Egyptian temptress so memorably limned by Shakespeare: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." Octavian takes the empire. Cleo takes the asp. The common thread that binds nearly all animal species seems to be that males are willing to abandon all sense and decorum, even to risk their lives, in the frantic quest for sex.  ~Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer, A Natural History of Rape

3. 2. Henry VIII commits serial husbandry. The pope is not pleased as the English monarch runs through six wives, two of them terminated with extreme prejudice. The result is Henry's break with Roman Catholicism in 1534, one of Europe's turning points. It is not economical to go to bed early to save the candles if the result is twins.  ~Chinese Proverb

4. GrigoryOrlov 3. Catherine of Russia is Great on the throne, in bed and allegedly in the stable. Catherine took numerous lovers before overthrowing her hapless husband in 1762. As recounted in History's Greatest Scandals, by Australian author Ed Wright, the Empress shocked the court by riding astride. Rumours soon circulated that she got sexual pleasure from a horse between her legs -- then morphed into allegations that she liked it even more when the horse was astride. Grigory Potemkin If you use the electric vibrator near water, you will come and go at the same time. 

5. Sally Hemings (Thomas Jefferson)All the Presidents' Girls 4. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, president of the United States (1801-09), sires a brood of children with his household slave. DNA tests of Sally Hemings's descendants leave little doubt that at least some of her six children were indeed fathered by Jefferson. "Familiarity breeds contempt - and children."

6. 5. Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson. Best-known love story of the 20th century. The monarchy was rocked by Edward's abdication in 1937. Everyone in my parents' generation remembered his moving tribute to "the help and support of the woman I love."

7. 6. Edwina and Jawaharlal and the end of empire. This affair could have had enormous consequences if pushed to its limit. When the British government decided in 1947 to withdraw from India, it sent Lord Louis Mountbatten out as viceroy to oversee the process. His wife, Edwina, and the future Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, promptly fell head over heels for each other. Mountbatten and his wife had long had an open marriage. ("She had her playboys and he had his sailors," a British colleague once explained to me.) But the affair had to be kept from the Muslim negotiators. Partition, into India and Pakistan, turned out to be bloody enough as it was.

8. "Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?"

9. 7. The Profumo affair, one for the ages. With lords and ministers, playgirls and pimps, Russian espionage, sex and more sex, this scandal titillated those of us lucky enough to be studying in Britain in the early 1960s. War minister John Profumo was damned for misleading the Commons about his relationship with the delectable call girl, Christine Keeler. "Oh my goodness, John," said Christine: "You have upset the parliamentary machine. To lie in the nude may be dreadfully rude -- But to lie in the House is obscene." "I'm not cheap, but I am on special this week."

10. GerdaMunsinger PierreSévigny 8. The Munsinger affair, Canada's own worthy entry from the Diefenbaker government. Exposed finally in 1966, it was Profumo all over, including a German sexpot with a shady past, cabinet ministers desirous of her favours, another Russian agent and more political crises. Journalists competed madly for scoops. The CBC's senior proboscis, Larry Zolf, doing a door-stepper at the home of Pierre Sevigny, narrowly escaped being conked by Col. Sevigny's lashing cane. Sex:  the thing that takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble.  ~John Barrymore

11. 9. Zimbabwe's former president Canaan Banana is convicted of sodomy in 1998. His unfortunate surname yields the headline "Man raped by Banana." "The difference between light and hard is that you can sleep with a light on."

12. "Flies spread disease - keep yours zipped." 10. Bill Clinton's escapades with Monica Lewinsky almost bring expulsion from the White House. The world wrinkled its nose at stories of a semen-stained dress and a cigar deployed for unusual purposes. There was also the time the president discussed congressional matters on the telephone while simultaneously receiving the ministrations of Miss Lewinsky. In the realm of multi-tasking, that might be a world record.

13. Which brings us to another presidential affair, which didn't make our list because it was a deep secret at the time. That is John F. Kennedy's hot-and-heavy entanglement with actress Marilyn Monroe, who committed suicide on Aug. 5, 1962. What if the affair had received full Clintonesque coverage? Think about it: The most publicly desirable woman on the globe has a torrid affair with the married leader of the free world, then kills herself after being callously dumped by him and perhaps his randy brother Bobby as well. It would have blown the roof off Washington. Just over two months later, JFK received reports about the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba. He handled the crisis coolly as the world came to the brink of nuclear war. But what if he had been fighting for his political life at the time? What if he had stepped aside for Lyndon Johnson? It does give one pause.

14. All pictures, quotes & info from the www. "A chicken and an egg are lying in bed. The chicken is smoking a cigarette with a satisfied smile on its face and the egg is frowning and looking put out. The egg mutters to no one in particular, "I guess we answered that question.” Trinity