A History of Wronged Pregnant Women

Huma Abedin

There was a collective gasp across the nation Wednesday as people learned that Huma Abedin—the wife of digital hound dog Anthony Weiner—is pregnant. Abedin is just the latest in a long line of impressive women wronged by their men while pregnant. A bun in the oven won’t dissuade a philanderer or creep—in fact, sometimes it only seems to encourage nasty behavior. Take a look through this gallery and see which women decided to stick it out with their men and which ones called it quits. Here, Abedin hands a note to Secretary of State Clinton on March 10, which is around the time the baby was conceived.

Photograph by Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images.
Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston

Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol summed up her baby daddy Levi Johnston’s dirtbag tendencies quite nicely. "He's just obsessed with the limelight and I got played." 18-year-old pregnant Bristol was slated to marry Levi, but—Bristol asserted in an interview with People—it all fell apart when Johnston confessed to her that he might have fathered a child with another woman as well. Here, Bristol holds hands with Levi Johnston during the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3, 2008.

Photograph by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images.
Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods

In 2007, Elin Nordegren gave birth to a girl with some of the greatest athletic genes in the world. A year later, she gave birth to a second child. Unfortunately, this is the same time period, it appears, when Tiger was exploring the offerings of many other females. One of these women, porn-star Joslyn James, also claims that Woods impregnated her during this time—twice. (The first time she miscarried, the second time she opted to abort). Woods has not addressed this claim specifically but offered instead: “I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did. … For all that I have done, I am so sorry.” Amid the media frenzy, his wife left him.

Photograph by Harry How/Getty Images.
Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Famous cheaters seem to have a knack for impregnating multiple women at the same time. Arnold Schwarzenegger knocked up his mistress around the same time he impregnated his wife, Maria Shriver, in 1997. (The couple is here photographed together that year.) The boys were born a week apart. Although it’s not clear what exactly Shriver knew about her husband’s tendencies during her pregnancy, it was news of this “love child” that ultimately spurred her to leave him.

Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images
Ginny Barber and Tiki Barber

Ginny Barber was eight months pregnant with twin girls when her husband, retired Giants running back Tiki Barber, left her for a young blond intern. Ginny reportedly barred her husband of 11 years from the delivery room when she gave birth.
Coleen Rooney and Wayne Rooney

Manchester United player Wayne Rooney incurred the wrath of the blogosphere in September 2010, when it was alleged that he was hanging out with a prostitute during the first five months of his wife’s pregnancy. Just a few months earlier, his wife, Coleen, had declared in her OK! Magazine column, “It's true—I'm pregnant. It's the most brilliant news and, along with marrying Wayne, the best thing that's ever happened to me.” Nonetheless, she stuck by him.

Photograph by Brad Barket/Getty Images.
Christina Master and George Lazenby

George Lazenby, who played James Bond in 1969 (pictured), hit his first wife, Christina Master, while she was pregnant, according to papers she filed amid a bitter custody battle many years later. Lazenby denied his ex’s charges, offering, "I wish Christina would show me a medical report, X-rays and pictures that show I broke her nose.”
Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen

In between shooting his fiancee Kelly Preston in the arm in the 1980s and pursuing his goddesses this past year, there was a moment in Sheen’s crazy life when he impregnated Denise Richards. It didn’t start or end well. When Denise Richards told husband Charlie Sheen she was pregnant with one of their two kids, he lost it, according to her divorce filings, pressuring her to abort. Only when she threatened to leave him did he concede, she asserted. Richards also claimed Sheen was outraged when the sex of the child turned out to be female and was utterly unsupportive—and verbally abusive—throughout the pregnancy.

Photograph by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.
Jacqueline Kennedy and JFK

President Kennedy was a well-documented cheater, so it should not surprise anyone that he stands accused of extramarital adventures even during the time Jackie was pregnant. According to an array of Kennedy books, the then-senator then took a two-week babe-filled Mediterranean boating trip with his brother while Jackie was pregnant in 1956. While he was enjoying himself on the yacht, the future first lady was rushed to the hospital. Doctors performed an emergency C-section, but the infant was stillborn. There is no concrete evidence of what happened on the boat, but nonetheless his absence was less than helpful at that critical time for his wife.

Photogaph by AFP/AFP/Getty Images.
Joan Kennedy and Edward Kennedy

Joan Kennedy was pregnant and confined to bed rest when her husband drove his car off a bridge, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne in July 1969. Nonetheless, belly bulging, Joan stood by her husband’s side in court and at the funeral. She miscarried not long after, which she blamed on the stressful event. Thirteen years later, the couple divorced. Here, they are pictured in October 1969, two months after the accident.
Photograph by AFP/Getty Images.
Shar Jackson and Kevin Federline

Does it get any worse than having your husband leave you shortly before you are about to give birth—for Britney Spears? That’s what happened to actress Shar Jackson. While Federline was kissing Britney Spears in this 2004 photo, Jackson was carrying his baby. Of course, Federline and Spears’ union didn’t work out, and the pop star publicly lost her mind … and hair, which is perhaps what helped Shar eventually to forgive Federline. They are now supposedly friends.
Photograph by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
Mary-Louise Parker and Billy Crudup

Just a couple months shy of his partner Mary-Louise Parker’s due date, Billy Crudup left her for Claire Danes. Years later, in an interview with BlackBook Magazine, Danes boasted about Crudup’s integrity: “[W]e just can’t shake monogamy. … It definitely demands a kind of rigor and discipline and selflessness.”
Photograph by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images.
Nora Ephron and Carl Bernstein

If you’re going to be wronged while pregnant, you might as well follow Ephron’s example and turn the experience into a successful book and movie. Ephron was pregnant with her second child with Washington Post investigative journalist Carl Bernstein when she founded out that he’d fallen for her good friend, married British politician Margaret Jay. And thus the Ephron-Bernstein chapter ended. The screenplay for Heartburn, Ephron’s take on the affair, earned her an Oscar nomination.

Photograph by Matt Campbell/AFP/Getty Images.