Richard Parsons, Citigroup Chairman, Caught in Love Tangle, Has Baby Daughter With Model MacDella Cooper

Why do so many young women put themselves in the position of being someone's "clean-up woman?" I will never understand why some women knowingly have long-term relationships with married men. The latest sh** to hit the fan comes courtesy of Citigroup board chairman Richard Parsons, 61, who has been married for 30 years and has three grown children: Gregory, Leslie and Rebecca. According to media reports, while he is wrestling to fix the financial mess at Citigroup, he has also been wrestling to find a way to tell his wife, Laura Ann Bush, that not only has he been been cheating on her with MacDella Cooper, 32, but he also practiced unsafe sex, which resulted in the birth of a baby girl, Ella, last August.

The widely admired executive is said to have become close to the former model - who says she has worked for Ralph Lauren and appeared in Glamour magazine - through his support of her MacDella Cooper Foundation, which she founded in 2004 to help orphans and abandoned children in her homeland of Liberia. Besides making donations, Parsons was the keynote speaker at her foundation's gala in October 2007. A press release for the foundation said it was "proud to have earned the devotion of such esteemed individuals as ... Richard Parsons."

Having attended benefits for the foundation, Parsons was regularly seen going into Cooper's midtown apartment building, where she lives and works, a source said. Parsons is due to mark his 31st wedding anniversary with his wife, the former Laura Ann Bush in August. Parsons met Laura, a community activist with a doctorate in child psychology, at the University of Hawaii, and he has frequently credited her with his success.

"I'm certain I would not have followed the career track that I ended up following if it hadn't been for my wife," he told Megan Basham, author of "Beside Every Successful Man." "I can expose her to problems and issues, and she will ask very sound baseline questions that cause me to think about it in a different light. ... I very much need Laura's input." His wife has said that she encouraged him to go to law school because he enjoyed arguing. His career, which has made him one of the most prominent African-American businessmen in the world, has been an incredible journey of success. Source: NY Daily News

Adulterous relationships are nothing new, but the hypocrisy involved is what unnerves me every time this hits the mainstream media. Former senator John Edwards' own relationship came to light recently and he initially lied about it until he was caught. I guess the question to women who are mistresses is don't you love yourself more than this? Why would you want to be a married man's diversion and side thrill? You can't possibly be filled with such self-hatred. Elizabeth Edwards is stricken with terminal cancer and all he could think of was having unprotected sex with Reille Hunter and lying about it when he got caught. Never mind that fact that he could have carried home more than lipstick on his collar to his ill wife.

And to the men, especially those who tell the whole world that they couldn't possibly be so successful had it not been for their wives' encouragement, sacrifice and hard work, but yet they stab them in their backs and continue to turn the knives, all the while still singing their virtues. Never mind the fact that Dick Parsons, John Edwards, Rev. Jesse Jackson, have managed to embarrass their entire families in the process. Ms. Cooper, you are a beautiful young woman, couldn't you find your own man, instead of being the "clean-up woman" for Richard Parsons and now his "baby mama?"