Mistresses: Do they deserve a happy ending?

A few months ago, I wrote an article on celebrity affairs after the news of Maroon 5 band leader’s affair broke the Internet. Adam Levine is not the only celebrity whose affair rocked the waves.

In that same article, I mentioned other notable celebrities whose marriages or relationships ended because of cheating allegations.

I also mentioned Gerald Piqué and Shakira’s as the rumours of Piqué’s affair had also lit up the internet last year.

Shakira recently released a diss track that gave us a little more insight into the events that turned the rumour mill.

The song, alternatively titled BZRP Music Sessions #53, breathes life into the rumours that circulated during the couple’s separation.

Allegedly, Piqué’s current girlfriend, Clara Chia, had a long-term affair with the footballer while his girlfriend and the mother of his two children was out of town.

What has shocked people even more is that Shakira allegedly discovered the affair because of jam.

Not traffic jam or loss of signal but the fruit jelly we spread on bread. As the story goes, Clara Chia lived in Shakira’s house while she was away, wearing her clothes, sleeping in her bed and eating her jam…

Now Shakira and Piqué are engaged in a bitter custody battle, while the mistress has officially become Piqué’s new live-in girlfriend.

One can’t help but wonder, mistresses have for too long been the villains in other people’s relationships, but what becomes of them when the people they cheat with become available?

Are they now the missus? Are they still blameless if their relationship blooms in the ashes of the previous one? And finally, do they deserve a happy ending?

Although social norms have always reinforced the belief that cheating is wrong, adultery remains the top reason for divorce.

However, affairs are not one-sided, as much as the blame lies largely with the person who was in a committed relationship. The person who voluntarily engaged with a married person is equally at fault.

Sometimes, the mistress (or male equivalent) would find themselves in a sorry state, and sometimes they would find themselves pitching up tent in the newly vacated lot.

There are many examples of women who have managed to turn their dalliances into successful marriages.

Most of us know at least one couple whose relationship started off on the wrong side. Even in Hollywood, a great many actresses and singers continued to be successful in their relationships that blossomed out of infidelity.

Angelina Jolie is perhaps the most known. In the early 2000s when the hunky Brad Pitt was married to the loveable Friends star Jennifer Aniston, fans absolutely adored the couple.

That was until Brad Pitt started an affair with Angelina Jolie on the set of their blockbuster film Mr & Mrs Smith.

Jolie endured hatred from fans of Aniston for breaking up the couple until she and Pitt went on to have a long-term marriage and several children together.

Although the Pitt-Jolie marriage eventually broke apart the same way it started, there are several other successful marriages by celebrities which started from affairs.

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats, LeAnn Rhimes and Eddie Cibran, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, and not to mention the most infamous mistress of all, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Yes, the current Queen Consort of England was once the mistress to the current King when he was married to Princess Diana.

Their affair was perhaps the most scandalised and publicised affair of all time. Their affair broke two marriages and was frowned upon for the longest time.

Yet the couple has withstood everything and are a few years short of being married for 20 years.

So there we have it. Some mistresses get ousted, others get a happy ending, and very few get to be Queens.