Mistresses are the credit crunch’s latest victims

As men, fearful for their jobs and marriages, seek to cut back on their assets and expenditures, mistresses are facing a cull. A recent survey reports that nearly half of analysts, stockbrokers and hedge-fund managers are preparing to let the other woman go. There’s no doubt about it: times are bad for good time girls.

“Like luxury cars, mistresses require a lot of time and money to be spent on them,” says Josh Spero, senior editor of Spear’s Wealth Management Survey, “so when it comes to wealthy men cutting back, the other woman is near the top of their list.”

Although modern mistresses may differ from their historical counterparts – in the past, royal mistresses of European monarchs such as Nell Gwynne and Madame de Pompadour were not simply kept women but figures of immense influence – the fragrant breed exists in a variety of forms. “It may be a far cry from 18th and 19th-century France,” says Oliver James, the psychologist, “but there are different types of mistresses around today, including the ‘other women’ who describe themselves as ‘mistresses’ without feeling there are any negative connotations attached.”

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