The Most Famous Mistresses

Through history women have had limited career opportunities, especially for careers that would afford ample financial rewards. If you were beautiful or talented, being the mistress of a wealthy man was one of the few ways to gain financial security - but you could lose your head.

• Marilyn Monroe, actress and mistress of John Kennedy. She thought he would leave Jackie for her.
• Maria Callas, opera singer and mistress of Ari Onassis. She was crushed when he married Jackie Kennedy.
• Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV of France, though often ill and finding sex unappealing, kept her position by setting up a small bordello on the ground of Versaille where young women would be waiting to service the king.
• Madame du Barry, Madame de Pompadour's successor, went from being an infamous Parisian prostitute to maitresse-en-titre but was so reviled by the court that the young dauphine Marie Antoinette refused to speak to her for two years.
• Nell Gwynn, a successful actress, raised in the gutter, maintained her position as mistress of Charles II of England for nearly two decades.
• Lola Montez, popular dancer and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. She was run out of the country by an angry mob.
• Dr Faith: currently working on a new show.