Not all rulers are monarchs, and not all mistresses consented to sleeping with rulers. The relationship between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson is one of the most controversial in American history - this is how it starts.
As the sexual side of her relationship with Louis XV ended, Reinette would need to find new ways to remain in power - all the while, a new enemy emerged from across the Rhine.
Reinette solidifies her position as the maitresse-en-titre to Louis, but. in doing so, creates some powerful enemies.
A mother takes her daughter to see a fortune teller, who tells her that she would grow up to sleep with the King of France.
Hortense travels to England and seduces a King. And his daughter.
A woman born in Italy, raised in the court of the Sun King and who would become the mistress of England’s most famous womanising monarch.
Roxelana goes to even more extraordinary lengths to protect her family, but even she would not be able to keep cracks from opening up.
Roxelana picks a fight with a rival and has another killed. She was playing for keeps.
Sold into slavery at a young age, Roxelana would tear up the rule book in the Imperial harem in Istanbul.
After losing her parents at a young age, Lady Nijo is sent to be the concubine of Emperor Go-Fukakusa. But if he expected her to knuckle under, he would be sorely disappointed.
As the Roman Republic entered its death spiral - Servilia would have to choose between her son and the man she loved.
The decline and fall of the Roman Republic is one of history's great epics - with a colourful cast of characters that have become household names. All of them men. All, except one.
The teacher of Socrates and the lover of Pericles - Aspasia of Miletus came to Athens with nothing, but left quite a legacy.
In the fifth season of the Other Half Podcast, we are looking at Rulers' Mistresses: a cross-cultural story of extra-marital love and lust, bringing ten women, who so often existed in the shadows, into the light.
Pascalina helps propel Pius XII to the papacy, becoming his right-hand woman and the most powerful woman in Vatican history.
Pascalina would come a long way from her family farm in Bavaria, becoming the right-hand woman to a man who would become Pope just as Europe slipped towards war.
Scandal was never far from Christina but she is about to get embroiled in her most serious one to date.
Pontifacts: Women and Female Power in the Vatican with The Other Half Podcast
On Monday 19 September, Queen Elizabeth II will be laid to rest in Windsor after a state funeral at Westminster Abbey. Royal funerals have gone back hundreds of years, with the first one in the Anglican tradition occurring in 1603. What did those funerals look like, and how will they compare to the one we will watch tomorrow?
Christina arrives in Rome and makes her mark on a very different court from the one in her homeland.
One of the greatest conscious uncouplings in European royal history as Queen Christina does two unthinkable acts: give up both her throne and her faith.
Women make up half of the world's population, and yet history books often consign them to the sidelines. They are dismissed as merely the wives of powerful men; babymakers and nothing more. Yet women have been the driving force behind history for millennia, from female Pharoahs, warrior princesses and pirates, to the revolutionaries who sought to topple the male-dominated political systems of their day. From host of the popular 'Queens of England Podcast', The Other Half tells the forgotten and ignored stories of the most powerful and influential women in history.
