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The history of the American presidency is tainted with scandals, including stories of extramarital affairs and illegitimate children. While much of this gossip is of course unsubstantiated, there are examples of rumor being well and truly rooted in fact. And while there are many US presidents accused of fathering illegitimate offspring who actually never did so, in some cases the truth is a bit more complex.
In this gallery we look at the American presidents with alleged illegitimate children and explore whether these are indeed just rumors, or not. Click on and read their stories.
Founding Father George Washington, who served as the first president of the United States, is said to have had two children out of wedlock.
The first child was Thomas Posey, though it's suspected this rumor was created by the press. The second one was a child named West Ford (pictured), whom Washington reportedly fathered with a slave named Venus.
Venus worked on George Washington's brother's plantation. The two got involved and Ford was supposedly born sometime between 1784 and 1785. However, according to research conducted by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, it's unlikely that George Washington was the father of West Ford.
The rumor that President Thomas Jefferson had an illegitimate child first surfaced in 1902. The author of an article published in the Scioto Gazette claims to have met the son of an unmarried slave named Sally Hemings, who worked for Mr. Jefferson. His name was Eston Hemings.
But Eston wasn't the only kid with a claim. Eston's brothers, including one named Madison, also insisted they were sons of the president. An 1873 article (not the one pictured) published in an Ohio newspaper claimed Jefferson and Hemings had a relationship in France before returning to America.
Evidence is weak in confirming whether Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' children. But a 1998 DNA study confirmed that Eston was related to the Jefferson male line, although this doesn't necessarily mean that the president was his father. Any male from his family could have fathered him. Pictured is John Wayles Jefferson, the grandson of Sally Hemings.
The 9th US president died from pneumonia about a month into his term in 1841. But he too was subject to rumor. Harrison, who was married to Anna Symmes, had ten legitimate children… but reportedly had another six out of wedlock!
According to NC African-American History Professor Kenneth Robert Janken, the president had these six children with a slave named Dilsia during time spent in Virginia. Having such an illegitimate brood was never going to be good for his political career, so he essentially disowned them.
The story goes that four of his children were given to Harrison's brother, who then sold them to a Georgia plantation owner. One of those kids was Marie Harrison, who had children of her own, among them one Madeline Harrison, mother of civil rights activist Walter White.
There is little factual evidence to support this story. But if true, Walter White, the man who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), would be William Henry Harrison's great-grandson.
John Tyler became president following William Henry Harrison's death. He had 15 legitimate children, and is said to have fathered many others, including Baptist minister and teacher John Dunjee, with slaves.
The only source to back this story is testimony by one of John Tyler's slaves, James Hambleton Christian. The abolitionist newspaper The Emancipator also reported on Tyler fathering children with slaves during the 1840 presidential race.
Thus far, no DNA studies have been conducted. But if the tale turned out to be true, it's worth mentioning that John Dunjee went on from slavery to become the first black student to attend Bates College in Maine.
The only American president to serve two non-consecutive terms reportedly had a child with one Maria Halpin. Cleveland admitted to having intimate relations with Halpin in 1874, but so did some of his friends. Paternity was therefore uncertain.
But as it turns out, Halpin's version was a bit different from that of Cleveland's. In 1884, the Chicago Tribune reported that "she said that Cleveland had pursued her relentlessly, and that she finally consented to join him for a meal [...] After dinner, Cleveland escorted her back to her boarding house. In an 1874 affidavit, Halpin strongly implied that Cleveland's entry into her room and the incident that transpired there was not consensual—he was forceful and violent, she alleged, and later promised to ruin her if she went to the authorities."
Halpin's son, Oscar Folsom Cleveland, was removed from her custody after birth and she was admitted to a local asylum for the insane. The boy was adopted and raised in Buffalo.
Warren Harding liked to drink during Prohibition and play poker, so perhaps an illegitimate child doesn't quite come as a surprise, right? The mother of Heding's rumored child was his mistress, Nan Britton.
Warren Harding and Nan Britton's daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1919. She was the president's only known alleged child. The love affair was refuted for years, until generations later DNA testing proved otherwise.
In 2015, DNA testing revealed that Britton's grandson, James Blaesing, was in fact related to the Harding family. So it's entirely possible that Elizabeth's father was indeed Warren Harding.
JFK's love life was under the spotlight from the get-go, and numerous rumors of affairs subsequently surfaced. But as it turns out, the only suggestion of a illegitimate child came as a result of the president's liaison with his ex-fiancée, Alicia Corning Clark.
The couple got engaged in 1951, but then called off the wedding. The story has it that Clark sued JFK in 1961 and the case was settled, the details of which remain largely unknown. Following her death, and without any children to leave her inheritance to, the executor of her estate dug into the possibility of a love child between the two. Thus far there is no evidence to suggest this story is anything more than just a rumor.
The president had a rumored love child with his mistress, Madeleine Brown. In an 1987 interview, Brown told People Magazine that when she fell pregnant, Johnson's reaction was dismissive. By then, Brown and Johnson had been seeing each other for approximately two years.
Steven Brown was born in late 1950. The child had Brown's husband's name down as his father (he was institutionalized at the time) and apparently grew up in a house paid for by Johnson. Lyndon B. Johnson died in 1990 and his presumed fatherhood has never been confirmed. Pictured is Johnson's friend Billie Sol Estes with Madeleine Brown in 1998.
Ronald Reagan made history for being the only president to take office having previously divorced. Among the illegitimate children rumors, there is one individual who claims that Reagan fathered a child sometime between 1930 and 1931.
We're talking about the rumored love child of Reagan and his Eureka College sweetheart, Margaret Cleaver. Cleaver reportedly didn't return to college the following year, though it later transpired she had instead transferred to the University of Illinois for 12 months. All this points to mere rumor rather than to an actual illegitimate child no one has ever seen.
Bill Clinton is no stranger to scandals. The Monica Lewinsky case was pretty huge (among others), so rumors of illegitimate children don't really come as a surprise. One line of gossip goes back to 1985, when a woman named Bobbie Ann Williams claimed she had had a child named Danney Williams with Clinton.
In 1999, DNA tests were reportedly carried out by Star Magazine but after paternity was debunked, Williams claimed the test wasn't precisive enough and insisted it was even botched by one of Clinton's friends.
Publisher Larry Flynt was contacted by the lawyer of somebody called Susan who wanted to share her story. Susan had reportedly overheard Bush telephoning her boyfriend, Clyde, and panicking because he had gotten a woman named Rayette pregnant. Clyde managed to arrange an abortion for Rayette.
Indeed, Bush and Rayette lived in the same apartment complex, but Flynt wasn't able to take the story any further: there were no records of the abortion, and Rayette denied it ever happened. He didn’t pursue the allegations further due to lack of evidence.
Rumors about an illegitimate child surfaced during Trump's 2016 presidential run. Dino Sajudin, who worked at one of Trump's properties as a doorman, claimed to have heard of a rumor about a love child born of Trump and one of his employees. The story was never confirmed as true.
Sources: (Smithsonian Magazine) (PBS) (Nature) (The New York Times) (Grunge) (People Magazine) (American Spectator) (WIBX 950) (Politico)
See also: From penniless to powerful: American presidents who lived in poverty
US presidents and their alleged secret families
Some allegations proved to be more than just rumor
LIFESTYLE Affairs
The history of the American presidency is tainted with scandals, including stories of extramarital affairs and illegitimate children. While much of this gossip is of course unsubstantiated, there are examples of rumor being well and truly rooted in fact. And while there are many US presidents accused of fathering illegitimate offspring who actually never did so, in some cases the truth is a bit more complex.
In this gallery we look at the American presidents with alleged illegitimate children and explore whether these are indeed just rumors, or not. Click on and read their stories.