Imagine calling the man you’re seeing and the White House picks up.
According to reporting from 1975, Judith Campbell Exner placed seventy calls to John F. Kennedy in a little over a year. That detail raises a more interesting question than how often she dialed: What happened fifteen years later that made anyone go back and count? TIME’s contemporary account
That question opens Private Lives by Sasha7, our short video series about famous affairs. Each episode follows one relationship from the people involved to the moment the rest of us learned about it. Sometimes a spouse asked a question. Sometimes a reporter followed a lead. Alexander Hamilton took the unusual step of publishing the details himself.
At Sasha7, we spend a lot of time thinking about what people choose to keep private. For this series, we wanted to look at what happens when that choice slips out of their hands. Our first episode starts in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, who probably deserved a little more scrutiny whenever he said, “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
Episode 1 · John F. Kennedy and Judith Campbell Exner
In 1960, Sinatra introduced Judith Campbell, as she was known then, to John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was running for president and married to Jackie. Campbell later said she and Kennedy began an affair. About a month after that first introduction, Sinatra made another. This time the man he wanted her to meet was Sam Giancana, a Chicago mob boss. TIME
Fifteen years later, Senate investigators were looking into CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro. Giancana figured in the inquiry. So did his acquaintance with a woman whose calls appeared in White House records. What began as an investigation into an assassination plot brought reporters to Judith Exner with questions about her love life. The Washington Post
In December 1975, Exner faced the press. Kennedy had been dead for twelve years. The logs could tell reporters how often she had called. Only Exner could stand in front of them that day and say what the relationship had meant to her. She said they had been lovers. TIME
Watch Private Lives by Sasha7, Episode 1: John F. Kennedy.
Seven famous cheating scandals and the moments that made them public
Some affairs became public because the people involved fell in love in front of an audience. Others might have stayed private if someone hadn’t needed to explain a payment, answer a question under oath, or account for a name in a phone log. Here are seven of the most memorable cases, roughly in the order the public heard about them.
- Alexander Hamilton and Maria Reynolds · 1797. Accused of financial misconduct, Hamilton had an explanation for the payments he’d made to James Reynolds: Reynolds had been blackmailing him over an affair with his wife, Maria. Hamilton put that explanation in print. Anyone who wanted to know where the money went could now read about his marriage, too. History
- Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini · 1950. Bergman’s relationship with the Italian director prompted a U.S. senator to condemn the actress on the Senate floor. It’s an extraordinary detail even by the standards of old Hollywood. An elected official spent part of his working day telling the country what he thought of the love life of the woman from Casablanca. History
- Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton · 1960s. Their job on Cleopatra was to convince audiences they were in love. Both were married to other people when they fell for each other during filming. They eventually married, divorced, and married each other again. Even someone who knew how the first marriage ended had a reason to pick up the next issue. The Guardian
- John F. Kennedy and Judith Campbell Exner · 1975. Sinatra made the introductions. White House staff kept the phone records. A Senate investigation brought the connections into public view. Exner supplied the one piece none of those sources could: her account of an affair with the president. The Washington Post
- Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky · 1998. On August 17, after testifying before a grand jury, Clinton spoke to the country from the White House Map Room. He acknowledged a relationship with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, and asked for privacy for his family. The president had a national television audience for his side of the story. Lewinsky had no equivalent podium that evening. Read Clinton’s address
- Tiger Woods · 2009–2010. By the time Woods sat down with ESPN in 2010, his infidelity had been the subject of months of headlines. The interview is worth revisiting because viewers finally got to hear him answer direct questions about his own conduct. For once, the person with the microphone had very little reason to ask about golf. ESPN’s interview with Woods
- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mildred Baena · 2011. Shortly after Schwarzenegger left office as governor of California, Maria Shriver confronted him in a counseling session about whether he had fathered Baena’s son. He had. Long before he explained himself in a televised interview, there had been a much smaller audience for that answer. Los Angeles Times
Four names are on the ballot for the next episode
Would you start on the set of Cleopatra or in the White House Map Room? We’ve chosen the next four subjects for Private Lives. You choose the order.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Bill Clinton
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Tiger Woods
Look for the Episode 2 poll on Sasha7’s X account. The winner gets the next episode. After it airs, the remaining names go back to a vote. You can watch Private Lives by Sasha7 on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and X.
Frequently asked questions about famous affairs
What are some of the most famous cheating scandals in history?
Alexander Hamilton and Maria Reynolds, JFK and Judith Campbell Exner, and Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky are three enduring examples from American politics. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s affair drew attention to the making of Cleopatra. In sports, Tiger Woods’s infidelity put one of the world’s best-known golfers in front of an audience that included plenty of people who had never watched him play.
What did the seventy White House calls actually show?
The logs documented how often Exner placed calls over a period of just over a year. A logged call tells us nothing about what was said or even whether Kennedy picked up on that occasion. The account of a sexual relationship came from Exner herself. That distinction matters when a number gets repeated as often as this one has. TIME
Why was Frank Sinatra part of the JFK affair story?
Sinatra knew Kennedy, Giancana, and Exner. In 1960, he introduced Exner to Kennedy in Las Vegas. About a month later, he introduced her to Giancana. When investigators examined Giancana’s connections years later, those two introductions took on a significance nobody at the first meeting could have anticipated. TIME
Which famous affair did the person involved reveal himself?
Alexander Hamilton published the Reynolds Pamphlet in 1797. Allegations about his finances threatened his reputation, and he believed that explaining the blackmail payments would answer them. It’s an early example of someone trying to contain one scandal by giving the public a much more intimate one. History
Which Hollywood couple married twice after having an affair?
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Their relationship began while filming Cleopatra, when Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher and Burton was married to Sybil Williams. Taylor and Burton went on to marry each other twice. Of Taylor’s eight marriages, those two were to the same man. The Guardian
Married, but looking? Explore discreet dating at Sasha7.
