Mistresses Who've Caused A Lot Of Trouble

Celebrity cheating scandals are always sad and ugly, but they seem to stick around forever thanks to the voracious appetite of tabloid journalism. The fallout from infidelity is usually hardest on the extended families, but the careers of the participants usually take a hit also. In the worst cases, the whole affair turns out to be an exploitation ploy, but in every one of these situations, everyone involved gets dirty. Here are some of the women whose adulterous activities ended up slinging the most mud.

Being the first of Tiger Woods' very long list of mistresses to admit their affair with the golfer isn't exactly the best way to become famous, but that's how it happened for Rachel Uchitel. Her infamy, however, at least got her one perk, as Uchitel reportedly landed a seven figure payout to keep her from telling the media all the seedy details. Right around the time Uchitel admitted her affair with Woods, his then-wife, supermodel Elin Nordegren, may or may not have smashed out the rear window of Woods' Escalade with a golf club. The marriage didn't last much longer after that, although the PR teams always maintained that she was trying to free him from a wreck after crashing his car into a tree. Seriously though, if Tiger Woods' cheating butt getting assaulted with a golf club doesn't sound like poetic justice, we don't know what is.

Eddie Cibrian was married to Brandi Glanville when he met LeAnn Rimes, who was also married, on the set of Northern Lights. Eddie and LeAnn had an affair, after which both of their marriages broke up. As if that's not bad enough, LeAnn and Brandi wasted no time engaging in an ugly Twitter battle that slung insults back and forth about each other's eating habits, drug and alcohol abuse, and—worst of all—the treatment of the two young sons Brandi and Eddie had together. Gross. Go for each others jugulars all you want, ladies, but leave the kids out of it.

Former political superstar John Edwards watched his entire legacy unravel in the wake of the affair he had with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker documenting his 2008 presidential campaign. Edwards and Hunter even conceived a child together, whose paternity they falsely assigned to scapegoat Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign staffer. While he admitted to the affair soon after the mainstream media picked up the story, Edwards waited two years admit he was the baby's father, which he only did shortly before another disastrous revelation: there was a sex tape. That was the final straw for Edwards' marriage to Elizabeth Edwards, who happened to be ailing from terminal breast cancer, but who chose to try to stick it out with her husband of 33 years. She died less than a year after their separation, ending arguably one of the worst political extramarital affairs of all time.

Another rising political figure, New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, crashed down hard after extremely personal photos of his anatomy—which he'd sent to several women—were leaked online. Under the alias "Carlos Danger," Weiner enjoyed online sexual encounters with several women, the most notorious of whom was Sydney Leathers. Quickly outing herself as the center of Wiener's second scandal, Leathers didn't deny her desire for the spotlight. After showing up to one of Weiner's NYC mayoral campaign stops, Leathers then started a sex column advising young women how to exploit illicit relationships with powerful men. She even went as far as to shoot an adult film called Weiner and Me, erasing any doubt of her intention to fully capitalize on the affair. Weiner's political career, grievously wounded as it already was, stood no chance against Sydney Leathers.

Not that we feel any sympathy for philandering husbands like Jesse James, but when their mistress decides to become a quote-spewing machine for the disgusting tabloid media, the whole situation goes from unfortunate to revolting. This was exactly the case with Michelle "Bombshell" McGee, the illustrated woman at the heart of the breakup of James' marriage to Sandra Bullock. Making multiple television appearances and media statements including infamously licking a photo of Bullock's face, McGee is the posterchild for moral repugnance. Oh, and did we mention the photoshoot she once did in full Nazi uniform? She's the absolute worst.

Although constantly maintaining that she was just Donald Sterling's friend and assistant, V. Stiviano put the final nail in the coffin on what would have been a 60-year marriage. Showered with lavish gifts, including a ferrari and million-dollar luxury condo, Stiviano certainly reaped the benefits associated with being the secret mistress of a billionaire. She slipped up, however, with the "leak" of audio recordings she made in which Sterling makes racially offensive remarks. Incensed, the NBA levied Sterling with a lifetime ban from the league, which in turn basically forced him into selling the Los Angeles Clippers, a team he had owned for 33 years. Sterling's wife successfully sued Stiviano for the cash value of the ill-gotten gifts, but no amount of financial retribution was going to save this marriage. Donald Sterling filed for divorce just over a year after the initial scandal broke.

Unless you live in a cave, then you know about Angelina Jolie hooking up with Brad Pitt on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, effectively ending his marriage to Jennifer Aniston. What you may not know is that wasn't Jolie's first go-round at the Steal-A-Hubby Rodeo. Remember pre-Brad, when Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton were the weirdest, grossest couple? Hanging all over each other like high school crushes, wearing each other's blood in vials around their necks? Yeah, well, Thornton was actually engaged to Laura Dern at the time he and Jolie hooked up. They got married quickly, all the while trashing Dern in the press, prompting her to finally break her silence with, "I left our home to go and make a movie and while I was away my boyfriend got married and I never heard from him again..." Yeesh. Hey Brad, you uh, might want to keep a short leash on that one.