A president’s secret letters to another woman that he never wanted public

The Washington Post: Family and friends had known about the president’s intimate relationship with another woman for years, but whispers about their involvement were growing.
Woodrow Wilson was so worried that he asked his close adviser, Colonel Edward M. House, to meet him after dinner in his White House study on Sept. 22, 1915. In the meeting, Wilson talked about his longtime friendship with Mary Peck, a divorced woman he had met in Bermuda eight years earlier. He told House that the friendship was platonic but that he had been “indiscreet in writing her letters rather more warmly than was prudent.”
Besides personal embarrassment, the release of the letters would complicate Wilson’s hopes to marry the younger, richer Edith Bolling Galt and cast a shadow over his bid for reelection just as the war in Europe was expanding.But Wilson had in fact done more than write passionate letters to Peck.
Eight days before his meeting with House, the president sent Peck $7,500 – about $183,000 today – after she said she needed money for a California business deal.
Wilson also had written letters from the White House seeking financial assistance Wilson also had written letters from the White House seeking financial assistance for Peck. On Feb. 4, 1915, he asked Ladies’ Home Journal editor Edward William Bok to consider publishing an article Peck had written called “Around the Tea Table – Afternoon Tea.” An annotation said that Peck had sent a handwritten draft of the article to Wilson and he had the article typed “and then edited it carefully in his own hand” before sending it to Bok.