Is it true that french women allow their husbands to have other women on the side?

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Cabal

It was true that in the upper class men had mistresses. It came from before the Revolution, when the king took mistresses to fool around while his queen produced the Heir. Marriage was for dynastic or political reasons, mistresses were for love. The king was kicked out but the habit stayed.

The rule was don't ask, don't tell. As long as the wife could pretend not to see things were 'all right'. Stuck with their husbands in a marriage that would last their whole live, with no financial freedom, there wasn't much they could do. Mistresses usually were pretty, witty, and much more interesting than well bred wives. Of course, the wives had much less rights to a lover, after all they still had to produce the family Heir and it wouldn't do to have the boy fathered by someone else.
This is much less true now with easy divorce and woman at work. You still find mistresses, but they are hidden just like in the States. French women do not expect their husband to betray them, and if it happens and they discover it the retaliation is swift.
What Rillifane forgets to mention is that the wife of Mitterrand was very unhappy with her wayward husband and made him pay by messing up in his politics. She chose not to leave him probably because she liked to be the President's wife, but that was her choice. It was true though that France was more shocked by the breach of their private life than by the scene.

Rillifane

There is, perhaps, an understanding, at least among the educated and intellectual elite, that men (and women for that matter) may be devoted to their spouse and have another relationship at the same time.

As is the case almost everywhere however, the more liberal the attitude the more likely the person is to be a member of the higher intellectual and/or economic classes.

At the funeral of former President Mitterand, his wife Danielle and their two sons stood side-by-side with his natural daughter Mazarine and his longtime mistress Anne Pingeot.

While such a scene may seem shocking to the puritanically inclined in America and elsewhere, in France, the principle concern was that the photo invaded the privacy of the family.

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Kito

No, it is not true... I don't know if I have to say unfortunately or not (I am french and married, and not a real man if you were right...)

robert l

I think the reason people think that way is because in general french women (and men) are less uptight than their anglosaxon counterparts. There is also more mutual respect toward each other.

bee bop

ive lived all over france for a few years and whilst you cant tar everyone with the same brush nearly all the french lads old and young i know have at somepoint cheated on there partners,its not that they try and hide it just seems natural to them why else would they risk the wrath of a french woman!!

luca

I'm unlucky because mine, she doesn't want...

Barbibule

unfortunately, it's not true! :(

darkvince7

LOL.

NO.

Where did you hear that????????????????????????

Women here are very jealous.

mamour

no! where have you read or heard this? women are the same all over the world , except for some countries in Africa where women allow their husband to take more wifes;

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