Extramarital

The reasons people engage in extramarital affairs fall into three main categories, says Peggy Vaughan, author of "The Monogamy Myth" and "Beyond Affairs":* They are pushed into affairs by boredom in their marriage or the wish to escape a relationship that is not fulfilling.* They are pulled into affairs by the lure of excitement, novelty, physical attraction or by falling in love.* Society glorifies and is fascinated by affairs. Sex is used to sell everything from cars to clothes, Ms. Vaughan says.

What did you do during Hurricane Irene? Play board games by candlelight with the kids? Send the husband on a wild goose chase to find a generator? Use your cellphone to sign up on a website for cheating spouses? On a typical day, 255 people in Maryland sign up on ashleymadison.com, an extramarital dating service, a third of them via cellphone. During the weekend of Irene, the number of cellphone sign-ups increased by more than 77 percent, said website founder Noel Biderman.

NEITHER Sen. Alfonse D'Amato nor Sen. Charles Robb liked the way he was depicted on television Sunday night.But there was a significant difference between the CBS "60 Minutes" show that aired charges of the New York Republican's alleged efforts to help steer federal contracts to contributors and the revelations on NBC's "Expose" program about the Virginia Democrat's personal life.The former essentially sought to raise allegations of official misconduct, while the latter was primarily occupied with personal behavior, although it also raised suggestions of attempted intimidation against those making the charges.

WASHINGTON - Former Sen. John Edwards, whose bid for the Democratic presidential nomination was grounded in part on the tight bond he said he shared with his terminally ill wife, Elizabeth, admitted yesterday that he had an affair with a former campaign staffer that began two years ago. Edwards' confession to ABC News that he had a relationship with Rielle Hunter, 42, confirmed rumors that had been largely confined to tabloids and the Internet, but...

I knew a girl once who taught me to believe in love, no matter how hard I resisted. And then a third baseman ruined it for me. Thanks for nothing, A-Rod. Alex Rodriguez's wife, Cynthia, filed for divorce this week on grounds of "infidelity" and accusations that the 12-time All-Star "emotionally abandoned" her and their two children. "The marriage of the parties is irretrievably broken because of the husband's extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct," according to her petition for dissolution of marriage, which was filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

ONCE AGAIN infidelity has become an election-year issue. Another smart, young, charismatic Democratic candidate is accused of hiding extramarital affairs.But if Gov. Bill Clinton's followers feel disillusioned, it is a misreading of the governor's behavior and of Gary Hart's legacy. Even worse, it suggests selective morality; after all, more than 50 percent of all husbands, and 30 to 40 percent of wives, commit adultery. It's likely that the infidelity rate of politicians is higher than this norm.

WASHINGTON -- The following response was released yesterday by the White House:STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARYThe process leading up to today's events has been deeply flawed. The rank partisanship that led to the wholesale release of these materials, most of which are irrelevant, is regrettable. The unprecedented violation of grand jury secrecy that has resulted from the release of these materials is similarly unfortunate. And the gratuitous decision to make certain that the most salacious details were included -- despite a bipartisan staff agreement to keep them out -- raises questions as to the intent of the Republican majority.

Media critics who say journalists have no business delving into the sex lives of U.S. Reps. Henry Hyde and Dan Burton are probably well-intentioned - but misguided about how and why investigative reporters do what they do. The controversy has led me to reflect not only on the current controversy, but also on the difficult decisions I made a decade ago as the first independent biographer of business tycoon Armand Hammer, public figure extraordinaire, whose...

GREETINGS from a flunkee of the latest Kinsey survey, a survey that purportedly tested the nation's "basic knowledge of sex and reproduction." In fact, of the 18 survey questions I saw, only two concerned reproduction and at least six required specific knowledge of what goes on in other people's bedrooms!Yet. June M. Reinisch, the Kinsey Institute director who initiated the survey, claims that the "vast ignorance" revealed by its results has great social relevance. It's hard to believe that the voyeurism which continues to dominate our culture has gained such credibility.

WASHINGTON -- "Now, no matter what I say, to pretend that the press will then let this die, then we are kidding ourselves. I mean, you know, this has become a virtual cottage industry. The only way to put it behind us, I think, is for all of us to agree that this guy has told us about all we need to know."That was Bill Clinton speaking on "60 Minutes" in late January 1992.He was explaining to reporter Steve Kroft why he could not put rumors of his adultery to rest by issuing a simple denial.

I knew a girl once who taught me to believe in love, no matter how hard I resisted. And then a third baseman ruined it for me. Thanks for nothing, A-Rod. Alex Rodriguez's wife, Cynthia, filed for divorce this week on grounds of "infidelity" and accusations that the 12-time All-Star "emotionally abandoned" her and their two children. "The marriage of the parties is irretrievably broken because of the husband's extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct," according to her petition for dissolution of marriage, which was filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

IT MUST be the water: Those hefty plastic jugs brought into the Maryland State House for drinking. How else to explain the peccadilloes of Maryland governors toward the opposite sex? The latest casualty, Gov. Parris N. Glendening, is living apart from his wife of 23 years, Frances Anne. She's in their University Park home; he's in the mansion. He's not the first governor with woman trouble. It goes back at least as far as Albert C. Ritchie, the popular bachelor governor of the 1920s and 1930s.

Media critics who say journalists have no business delving into the sex lives of U.S. Reps. Henry Hyde and Dan Burton are probably well-intentioned - but misguided about how and why investigative reporters do what they do. The controversy has led me to reflect not only on the current controversy, but also on the difficult decisions I made a decade ago as the first independent biographer of business tycoon Armand Hammer, public figure extraordinaire, whose...

WASHINGTON -- The following response was released yesterday by the White House:STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARYThe process leading up to today's events has been deeply flawed. The rank partisanship that led to the wholesale release of these materials, most of which are irrelevant, is regrettable. The unprecedented violation of grand jury secrecy that has resulted from the release of these materials is similarly unfortunate. And the gratuitous decision to make certain that the most salacious details were included -- despite a bipartisan staff agreement to keep them out -- raises questions as to the intent of the Republican majority.

THIS one won't go away. We won't wake up in a couple days to find that this latest presidential scandal has blown over.It's too toxic to dilute. When we water it down with the tales of other presidents whose extramarital dalliances have come to light in this age of unwanted disclosures, we're still left with a stain too stubborn to wash away.Because by now we're forced to ponder the possibility that our president is a compulsive sexual aggressor or that he is besieged by political predators who will stop at nothing to bring him down, even if they have to disrupt the government to do it.Did we elect a man so reckless that he'd risk his future and ours for a back-room quickie or so ravenous that he'd take advantage of some star-struck groupie to satisfy an insatiable sexual hunger?

WASHINGTON -- Now that the dust has begun to settle, it appears that President Clinton is going to ride out the storm caused by the state troopers in Arkansas who claimed he used them to facilitate extramarital dalliances while he was governor.Lacking any confirmation from the women allegedly involved or any further and persuasive particulars from the troopers, the story has faded off the front pages and remains alive only on a few talk shows. As was the case with the Gennifer Flowers episode early in the 1992 campaign, the voters seem to have decided the accusations are either insubstantial or irrelevant.

Washington-- In 1987, Gary Hart, whose adultery was incessant, flagrant and, until then, unreported, said that if journalists followed him around, they would be bored. Some did; they weren't.Now we are being dragged back into the unpleasant business of deciding what private behavior is relevant to the assessment of political, especially presidential, candidates. That question answers this one: What is legitimate for journalists to scrutinize and publicize?Most Americans haven't a clue who Bill Clinton is -- he is Arkansas' 44-year-old Democratic governor -- and he has only one chance to make a first impression on the national public.

IT MUST be the water: Those hefty plastic jugs brought into the Maryland State House for drinking. How else to explain the peccadilloes of Maryland governors toward the opposite sex? The latest casualty, Gov. Parris N. Glendening, is living apart from his wife of 23 years, Frances Anne. She's in their University Park home; he's in the mansion. He's not the first governor with woman trouble. It goes back at least as far as Albert C. Ritchie, the popular bachelor governor of the 1920s and 1930s.

WASHINGTON -- "Now, no matter what I say, to pretend that the press will then let this die, then we are kidding ourselves. I mean, you know, this has become a virtual cottage industry. The only way to put it behind us, I think, is for all of us to agree that this guy has told us about all we need to know."That was Bill Clinton speaking on "60 Minutes" in late January 1992.He was explaining to reporter Steve Kroft why he could not put rumors of his adultery to rest by issuing a simple denial.

The reasons people engage in extramarital affairs fall into three main categories, says Peggy Vaughan, author of "The Monogamy Myth" and "Beyond Affairs":* They are pushed into affairs by boredom in their marriage or the wish to escape a relationship that is not fulfilling.* They are pulled into affairs by the lure of excitement, novelty, physical attraction or by falling in love.* Society glorifies and is fascinated by affairs. Sex is used to sell everything from cars to clothes, Ms. Vaughan says.