Things like this happen when you least expect them. There you are on a Saturday morning, doing laundry and listening to your boyfriend sing, “Girls, Girls, Girls” in the shower for the millionth time when you catch a whiff of a perfume that is definitely not yours on his favorite t-shirt. You crane your neck to catch the strains of, “I’m such a good, good boy / I just need a new toy,” and wonder, could he be cheating?

If you confront your man, and your suspicions are confirmed, will you join the ranks of Hillary Clinton and Tammy Faye Baker to stand by your man? Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis once said, “I do not think there are any men who are faithful to their wives.” Well, John F. Kennedy certainly wasn’t, but do all men have the cheating bug in them? Is a relationship, once soiled with adultery, gone for good? Read more ...

“I also feel sorry for the other woman. I am sure she is a fine person. It can’t be fun for her, though I do sometimes question her judgment. If she knew the newspaper had those E-mails back in December, why did she want him to come in June? But I can’t go there too much. All I can do is pray for her because she made some poor choices.”

— Jenny Sanford, in an interview for the ever-important September issue of Vogue, speaking of Maria Belén Chapur, the Argentine woman with whom her husband, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, was discovered earlier this year to be having an extramarital affair. [via WashingtonPost]

A call girl who worked for the same escort agency from which disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer procured call girls and who saw Spitzer as a client is claiming that she serviced the needs of another unnamed governor. According to a New York call girl named “Annie,” described as an “elegant blond courtesan,” she met with “Gov. X” three times. The governor is married, and a representative told a reporter that Gov. X had never called upon a hooker for sexual services. Annie contends otherwise, claiming her former boss, ex-madam Kristin Davis, booked her with the unidentified governor through a man who went by “Michael.” He picked her up in a sports car, they all went to dinner, and then she and the governor went to an apartment that the agency maintained and had sex. “He was a very standard client. He didn’t take the full hour. There was no exchange of money. Michael handled the payment.” After several more dates, Annie found out the governor was married, and “His wife is quite prominent in her own right.” So, who is it? Gawker has a list of some possibilities. I’m putting my money on Pennsylvania governor Rendell, whose wife is a federal judge, but who knows. With jaws wagging, only time will tell. [New York Daily News]

Slate advice columnist Dear Prudence got a doozy in her mailbag this week. A son wants to know if he should tell his father that he carried on an affair with his stepmother for years. Karma’s Bitch Boy writes: “When I was 17, Mom and Stepdad had to move to another city, so I moved in with Dad and Stepmom. My father’s new wife was a much younger and very attractive woman. The atmosphere was more relaxed than in my previous home. So much so that my stepmom (she’s about 15 years older) and I developed an attraction and started an affair.” Gulp! When Dad was out of town, son and stepmom got it on a couple times a month. The affair continued when Karma Boy went off to college and after; finally, he ended it two years ago. Now, his father is divorcing his stepmother for cheating on him—with somebody else—and his stepmother has informed him that unless he gets his father to concede on a financial matter that’s beneficial to her, she’s going to tell his father about their affair. Prudie advises the son tell his father what he’s done. What do you think he should do? [Slate]

There’s no sex like beginning-of-a-relationship sex. The anticipation. The exploring. The grabbing your new lover as soon as they walk in the door, throwing them onto the kitchen table and banging their brains out with the fervor of a Greek god and the enthusiasm of Rush Limbaugh on an anti-Hillary tirade after a three day coke binge. (Apologies if your lover’s face is replaced by Rush’s chubby mug next time you’re going at it ... ).

John Edwards, Balthazar Getty, Eliot Spitzer, cheating husbands have been all over the news here in the States. But in Britain, adulterous wives are the ones making headlines. According to the Telegraph U.K., more lonely housewives are looking for love on the Internet than ever before. Sites like IllicitEncounters.com have seen their numbers jump from 55 women signing up a day in 2007 to the nearly triple 142 times a day average just last week. What’s driving these women to look for hot sex behind their husbands’ backs? Well, Sara Hartley, a spokeswoman for the site, thinks the plummeting economy is causing the rise in cheaters. While their white-collar husbands are busy working long hours to fight the credit crisis and keep their jobs, their trophy wives are getting bored. Women with nothing to do but wait around for their husbands? Grrr…. I suppose everyone needs love, so who can blame these Hester Prynne’s for taking matters into their own hands via the Interweb? Hmm, wonder if American women will be using their economic stimulus checks to cheat on their husbands too?  [Telegraph U.K.]

In the recently published When Good People Have Affairs, author Mira Kirshenbaum writes that cheating on your spouse can be therapeutic and help people change. “You could think of it as a radical but necessary medical procedure,” she told British newspaper The Observer. “If your marriage is in cardiac arrest, an affair can be a defibrillator.” Interestingly enough, she believes that adulterers should never confess, even if their partner asks directly whether they’ve had an affair. In her mind, honestly is not the best policy, because the truth can be more painful than the lie. Does Mira know that sometimes the truth hurts? [The Telegraph, U.K.]

If you think America is hard on our cheaters, philanderers have been stoned to death in Iran up until this year.  Although there has been a moratorium on the harsh capital punishment since 2002, last year, Jafar Kiani, who was accused of adultery, died by stoning when local authorities took justice into their own hands.  His lover, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, remained in prison with their son for over a decade. But Ebrahimi managed to beat the odds of facing the same fate yesterday in court. The 34-year-old mother not only had her death sentence repealed, but immediately released. Ebrahimi was in such disbelief she told her lawyer, “It may be a trick—they aren’t going to release me, I can’t believe it.” Although death by stoning is still set in stone in traditional Iranian law, with twelve people still in jail awaiting their sentence to be carried out, this victory is truly groundbreaking. [BBC]