Mistresses are speaking out. And it's not pretty. But then again when sordid affairs, cheating, lies, deceit and sexual activities are involved, it makes for a heady concoction of drama and pain that inevitably goes sour.
Lately mistresses have been dominating the news, with Madison Ashton, the mistress of the late billionaire Richard Pratt, letting loose some startling revelations as she fights for part of his cash.
Then there's 2004 US Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards's mistress, Rielle Hunter, who has recently demanded that his love child to her be present at his daughter's wedding – the daughter of his dead ex-wife.
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Media attention aside, I'm not quite sure what these types women are thinking getting embroiled in these affairs: that they're in love with these men? That they can't do better? That they'll never be a priority in the bloke's life, so they might as well reconcile themselves to being second best … permanently?
The other night I saw a preview of a short film in the Manhattan Short Film Festival, which will start in Sydney on October 1. The film, titled Sexting, centres on the monologue of a woman (played by the gorgeous Julia Stiles) who is having a relationship with a married man.
With promises that he's going to divorce his wife never actually coming to fruition (do they ever??), Stiles's character decides to boldly go and confront her lover's wife in broad daylight.
Sitting opposite the woman at a coffee shop she tells her this:
"I've been to your place. I've slept in your bed. I thought you needed to know."
And she continues: "He told me he f---ing hates you and can't wait till it's over or she's dead." Ouch.
While we certainly gain a rarely seen insight into what the "other woman" is feeling, thinking and how she too is hurting over the whole sordid affair, I wonder if we should really be giving her - and other women in her position - any sympathy at all.
Surely she has a choice in the matter? Surely she realises that if this married man is cheating with her, one day he could be cheating on her with someone else?
For answers, I called the writer and director of Sexting, Neil Labute, and spoke to him from his home in Los Angeles.
He told me this: "I think to give sympathy to the mistress is a grey area. She has been led to believe one thing and has seen another. So she wants to get it out. I like the idea that you can give understanding to a person who has been mislead. It's not always so cut and dried. She's thinking, 'Hold on … I'm being f---ed around here too.'"
Yes, indeed she is. But, then again, does she not deserve to be?
A girlfriend of mine once had an affair with a married man, only she didn't know that he was married. Head over heels in love, she did think it was rather odd that he would see her only once a week, never answered her calls and never show her where he lived.
When she discovered he was married, she vowed never to speak to him again.
"Not only was I in pain over the fact that I was put second best, but I felt incredible guilt towards his wife," she told me. "No woman should have to be put in a position where another woman is calling another woman's man and having no idea about the trouble she's causing."
Why more mistresses don't feel this type of loyalty to their sisters (isn't rule 101 "thou shalt not sleep with another woman's husband?") is beyond me. Of course the men are to blame too, with all their false promises and fake declarations of love that draw these women in, only to see themselves spat out when the bloke in question has had enough.
I'm sure there are certain perks to being the "other woman". Especially when money, sex and promises of a future are given.
But surely these women are smart enough to know that it's not going to end well, ever ...? And when the ending does come along, shouldn't they keep mum rather than attempting to exact revenge on the dude if they knew what they were getting themselves into in the first place?
What do you think?
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