How Warren G. Harding's Secret Love Affairs and Erotic Letters Changed The World | Dark History

In this episode of Dark History, Warren G. Harding is arguably America's least-known, least respected president​. But the scandal of his legacy would reach beyond politics — into the bedroom. His erotic letters and a best-selling book would later reveal Harding had steamy extramarital affairs with at least two women during his political career: one a suspected German spy during World War I, the other a woman half his age who would bear his secret child.

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It was 1920. In a landslide victory, Warren G. Harding became the 29th president of the United States.

Nothing would prove as strong an influence on his political decisions like that of a seductive, and married, woman by the name of Carrie Phillips.

James Robenalt (Author, “The Harding Affair”): Carrie Phillips was his neighbor. She was married to a guy named Jim Phillips. They had a daughter, Isabelle, and then they had a son — but that son died very young, like 2 years old. It’s clear Jim suffered from depression.

By the time Jim Phillips started to unravel, Harding had spent two terms in the Ohio Statehouse, and had recently been elected lieutenant governor. Because the Hardings and the Phillipses were friends, Warren suggested Jim check into a sanitarium in the summer of 1905, to deal with depression over his lost child. That same summer, Florence Harding dealt with difficulties of her own.

A secret, steamy relationship had begun. Harding would run for governor of Ohio in 1910, so they had to keep the affair not only from their spouses, but also the voters. Still, they risked writing letters — and now, the pages dripped with passion.

Fed up with Harding’s refusal to leave politics or divorce his wife, Carrie left her husband and Harding behind to move to Berlin, Germany, with her daughter in 1911. There, she started a fresh life … and became devoted to a new cause.

With Carrie in Germany, their old dreams of divorce and starting a new life together fell by the wayside. Harding threw himself into politics more seriously than ever, running for the U.S. Senate in 1914 — and winning by a massive margin.

American intelligence reports would later suggest Carrie was no longer just a German sympathizer. Now, she was suspected of being a full-fledged traitor to her country, who had been tasked by Germany with gathering information about U.S. war plans. And she had a valuable target in her grip — her lover, Warren Harding.

In 1916, Harding was talked about as a presidential candidate. President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat up for re-election, wanted America to remain neutral in the war, which was the outcome Germany desired.

The Republican Party, however, was stacked with members like Teddy Roosevelt, who thought America should enter the war. Because Harding was a Republican, and happened to look up to Roosevelt and his ideas, the possibility of his election as president represented a threat to Germany.

To prevent Harding from running, Carrie threatened to send their love notes to the press. The threat of blackmail was enough. Harding dropped out of the race.

Instead, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected in 1916, and initially kept Americans isolated from the war. But by 1917, American Democrats and Republicans alike felt threatened by German warfare across the Atlantic, and Wilson put the decision to go to war in the hands of the Senate.

Nan Britton was like a groupie. She was born in his hometown. Her father was really Harding’s age, so Harding knew her dad. When her dad died, Harding helped her mom find a job as a schoolteacher to keep the family together.

He would also invite her to have intimate tête-à-têtes in locations such as his Senate office. It was there, in January 1919, that Nan would later claim their daughter, Elizabeth, was conceived. On October 22nd, 1919, Nan Britton gave birth to Warren Harding’s first and only child.

Carrie Phillips, because of her pro-German leanings and her threats to Harding, really changed the world when she kept him from running for president in 1916. Woodrow Wilson really failed at the end of the First World War in the Versailles Treaty.

As for Nan, when Harding’s death left her without child support, she took the unprecedented step of publishing a book in 1927 to expose her romance — and child — with the late president. America’s first tell-all book about a president was a wildly successful best-seller.

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