In April 2010 Vampire Slayer actor David Boreanaz got a call from his lawyer. A woman known to the actor was looking for money. From him. In return for keeping quiet about their extra-marital affair.
40-year-old Boreanaz obviously did some quick thinking and decided the best option was to come clean, admit the infidelity, save money and try to repair his marriage to former Playboy Playmate, Jaime Bergman. So instead of instructing the lawyer to pay his mistress discreetly, he spoke to People magazine and admitted cheating on his wife.
The actor said his infidelity had been “irresponsible” and vowed to do everything possible to save his nine-year marriage. Boreanaz and Bergman, who is 34, have two children – an 8-year-old son, Jaden, and a baby daughter Bardot, 8 months old. The couple married in 2001 seven months after meeting at a Valentine’s Day party given by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.
The actor told People that he’d “tainted” his marriage by cheating. Clearly, he would probably have continued to keep his affair secret if his mistress hadn’t threatened to sell her story to the press. At that point, he either had to submit to blackmail or beat her by getting into print first. He may well have calculated that a woman ruthless enough to try extortion would probably sell her story sooner or later anyway.
The interesting issue raised in this otherwise banal and all too common story of infidelity is that the mistress tried to extort money instead of going straight to the press – and that Boreanaz refused to pay for her (probably temporary) silence.
The woman knew that, either way, she couldn’t lose. Either she’d be paid for silence by Boreanaz’s lawyer. Or she’d get paid for a kiss-and-tell story.
Quite apart from the stupidity of married men who don’t spot these gold-digging mistresses a mile off, where is the law in such cases? How is it that women (and how many women) are getting away with what is quite clearly attempted blackmail? Prostitution is at least an honest exchange of sex and money. What this women, and no doubt many others, are up to is out-and-out extortion.
Although Boreanaz had not named his blackmailer as this article was published, it’s to be hoped that he instructs his lawyer to sue her for attempted blackmail. And her lawyer too. Even if she took legal advice and had legal help to frame a “request” for payment to buy her silence, the essence of her approach to the actor is blackmail. The”other women” who have sex with married men and think nothing of helping destroy their families, generally can’t be sued for the hurt they cause to wives and children (though one North Carolina wife did just that and won millions in compensation.) But mistresses should be sued when they use sex to extort money from their married lovers. As Boreanaz said of his unscrupulous ex-mistress:
“She asked for money. I felt as though I was being blackmailed or there was some sort of extortion.”
You’re right Boreanaz. You were being blackmailed and there was some sort of extortion.
