WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.330
- Hundreds of years ago,
if you were lucky enough

2
00:00:02.330 --> 00:00:05.770
to be the royal mistress and
having sex with the king,

3
00:00:05.770 --> 00:00:07.600
he would give you castles.

4
00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:09.170
You were set for life.

5
00:00:09.170 --> 00:00:10.510
But what are you gonna get

6
00:00:10.510 --> 00:00:13.350
as the mistress of a US president?

7
00:00:13.350 --> 00:00:15.237
A presidential paperweight?

8
00:00:15.237 --> 00:00:17.900
(bell dings)
(upbeat jazzy music)

9
00:00:17.900 --> 00:00:20.510
I'm Eleanor Herman and I am the author

10
00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:22.453
of Sex with Presidents.

11
00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:27.830
In one sentence, my
book is sexy, hilarious,

12
00:00:27.830 --> 00:00:30.230
sad, and a whole lot of fun.

13
00:00:30.230 --> 00:00:34.620
I am interested in why
people do the things they do,

14
00:00:34.620 --> 00:00:36.470
and one way of looking at that

15
00:00:36.470 --> 00:00:39.120
is through their sexual relationships.

16
00:00:39.120 --> 00:00:41.270
And there's a very
interesting intersection

17
00:00:41.270 --> 00:00:42.670
of sex with power.

18
00:00:42.670 --> 00:00:46.670
First major sex scandal
occurred in the 1790s.

19
00:00:46.670 --> 00:00:50.830
Alexander Hamilton, first
Secretary of the US Treasury,

20
00:00:50.830 --> 00:00:54.480
had an affair with a
prostitute, Maria Reynolds.

21
00:00:54.480 --> 00:00:56.310
It ended up in the press.

22
00:00:56.310 --> 00:01:01.310
He wrote a 100-page pamphlet
detailing his affair

23
00:01:01.330 --> 00:01:03.910
to justify himself, that
yes, he had an affair

24
00:01:03.910 --> 00:01:07.430
but he was completely honest
and incorrupt public official.

25
00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:08.580
And it really worked.

26
00:01:08.580 --> 00:01:10.950
I mean, people thought, well, you know,

27
00:01:10.950 --> 00:01:12.310
most guys have affairs.

28
00:01:12.310 --> 00:01:13.190
Who really cares?

29
00:01:13.190 --> 00:01:17.550
But he was honest, and so
his reputation was saved.

30
00:01:17.550 --> 00:01:20.430
JFK was the most philandering president.

31
00:01:20.430 --> 00:01:25.237
In 1962, he actually told
the British Prime Minister

32
00:01:25.237 --> 00:01:26.597
"I get a migraine headache

33
00:01:26.597 --> 00:01:29.610
if I don't get a strange
piece of ass every day."

34
00:01:29.610 --> 00:01:32.720
He would have sex with
them on his wife's bed.

35
00:01:32.720 --> 00:01:34.730
In the White House, the
First Lady and the President

36
00:01:34.730 --> 00:01:35.870
each have their own bedrooms.

37
00:01:35.870 --> 00:01:38.540
So why didn't he take them to his own bed?

38
00:01:38.540 --> 00:01:41.530
And Jackie would come back
and go to bed on her sheets

39
00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:44.800
that her husband had just had
sex on with another woman.

40
00:01:44.800 --> 00:01:46.700
It was just crazy.

41
00:01:46.700 --> 00:01:51.170
It's awful to be betrayed by
your husband to begin with,

42
00:01:51.170 --> 00:01:53.940
but then, you know, to be
in such a public position

43
00:01:53.940 --> 00:01:55.950
and heaven forbid it should be known,

44
00:01:55.950 --> 00:01:57.740
it should come out in the press.

45
00:01:57.740 --> 00:02:00.540
Eleanor Roosevelt, she
had married Franklin

46
00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:02.460
when they were both in their early 20s.

47
00:02:02.460 --> 00:02:06.840
She hired a beautiful social
secretary named Lucy Mercer.

48
00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:08.720
She found out that the two of them

49
00:02:08.720 --> 00:02:10.490
had been having an affair.

50
00:02:10.490 --> 00:02:14.360
So Eleanor stopped living
with her husband as his wife.

51
00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.450
They had, romantically,
very separate lives.

52
00:02:17.450 --> 00:02:20.130
He continued to see Lucy.

53
00:02:20.130 --> 00:02:22.950
Eleanor had her own relationships.

54
00:02:22.950 --> 00:02:25.210
Lorena Hickok was a reporter,

55
00:02:25.210 --> 00:02:27.720
and they were lovers for several years.

56
00:02:27.720 --> 00:02:30.610
The chapter I wish was in the book

57
00:02:30.610 --> 00:02:33.900
would be the one of James Buchanan,

58
00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:35.890
the president right before Lincoln.

59
00:02:35.890 --> 00:02:37.240
He was gay.

60
00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:39.620
He had an affair with a man

61
00:02:39.620 --> 00:02:44.020
who actually served as Vice
President earlier in the 1850s.

62
00:02:44.020 --> 00:02:46.683
I would really like to have that story.

63
00:02:46.683 --> 00:02:51.683
The love story of the, probably
the only gay US president.

64
00:02:51.940 --> 00:02:55.680
The story behind the cover is a fun one.

65
00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:57.980
I wanted a picture of the White House

66
00:02:57.980 --> 00:03:02.980
and then I wanted a kind of
vintage picture of a sexy woman.

67
00:03:03.550 --> 00:03:08.550
It had originally the
presidential seal on her butt.

68
00:03:08.830 --> 00:03:12.340
One of the largest booksellers,
who shall remain nameless,

69
00:03:12.340 --> 00:03:14.990
they objected to that.

70
00:03:14.990 --> 00:03:17.760
So we settled on the American Eagle seal,

71
00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:19.800
which isn't quite as funny.

72
00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:22.200
What do we do, why do we do it,

73
00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:24.620
and why do we think it's a good idea?

74
00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:26.740
I'd like people to understand

75
00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:29.530
the different motivations for adultery.

76
00:03:29.530 --> 00:03:33.340
It could be a very
intense romantic passion,

77
00:03:33.340 --> 00:03:36.960
or it could be JFK using women.

78
00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:40.090
There's this whole
gamut of human behavior,

79
00:03:40.090 --> 00:03:44.353
and I'd like people to,
to examine that as well.