Secrets & Scandals Of America’s First Ladies

“Astrologer Runs The White House”

That’s what a headline on The New York Post read after the public found out that Nancy Reagan was using an astrologer to plan events in the wake of the assassination attempt on her husband. The astrologer was Joan Quigley, who “said that over the next seven years, she issued guidance, for pay, that went far beyond mundane scheduling to matters of diplomacy, Cold War politics and even the timing of the president’s cancer surgery,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Although Nancy made payments to Quigley through a third party to keep the relationship secret, after word got out, she was ultimately embarrassed and mocked. Nancy Reagan wasn’t the only First Lady to consult an astrologer, however, as you will see later on.

Harriet Lane

Technically, Harriet Lane wasn’t a First Lady but her uncle, President John Buchanan, never wed so Lane fulfilled the duties of a First Lady throughout Buchanan’s presidency. By the time she was 11 years old, she was orphaned and requested to be put under the guradianship of her “favorite uncle,” James Buchanan. Buchanan is the only unmarried man ever to serve as president and according to National First Ladies Library, Lane was the first woman to be given the title of “First Lady” because she was his niece and people didn’t really know how to address her. She held the title from 1857 to 1861.