id author title date pages extension mime words sentences flesch summary cache txt en-wikipedia-org-2058 Mistress (lover) - Wikipedia .html text/html 2605 342 71 A mistress is a woman who is in a relatively long-term sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a different woman.[1][2] In modern times the word "mistress" is used primarily to refer to the female lover of a man who is married to another woman; in the case of an unmarried man, it is usual to speak of a "girlfriend" or "partner". The mistresses of both Louis XV (especially Madame de Pompadour) and Charles II were often considered to exert great influence over their lovers, the relationships being open secrets.[10] Other than wealthy merchants and kings, Alexander VI is but one example of a Pope who kept mistresses.[11] While the extremely wealthy might keep a mistress for life (as George II of Great Britain did with "Mrs Howard", even after they were no longer romantically linked), such was not the case for most kept women.[12] ./cache/en-wikipedia-org-2058.html ./txt/en-wikipedia-org-2058.txt