The Five Dark Secrets America's First Ladies Wanted Desperately to Keep Private

Let me tell you what my astrologer said, Warren.

​The position of First Lady is often a thankless one. A surprising number of presidential wives, usually citing health, were all but recluses during their husbands' administrations, brooding out of sight like something out of Jane Eyre.

Others have been more public, but they lived their lives in fear that the public would learn a certain something about them they desperately wanted to keep private.

The top five First Lady secrets:

5. Florence Harding: Belief in astrologer/clairvoyant
Florence Harding, Warren G. Harding's "Duchess," was a hard-headed, commonsense woman to the public. In private, she was a devoted client of Madam Marcia, Washington D.C.'s most famous astrologer. Harding would have a Secret Service agent deliver her to a discreet White House entrance. Marcia later claimed credit for having told the presidential candidate to run a front-porch campaign, and for predicting he'd die in office.

​4. Edith Wilson: She ran the country
Edith Bolling Galt married Woodrow Wilson (very shortly) after Wilson's wife died during his first term. In 1919, while on his doomed nationwide campaign to get the Senate to approve the creation of the League of Nations, Wilson suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed to a degree no one is sure of. What is known is that very few people got to see Wilson for the remainder of his term, and even then only in small doses. Every matter went to Edith Wilson, who went and "conferred" with her husband and returned with his decision. No one believes the "conferring" was anything but one-sided.