Summary

  • Don Draper had a total of 19 mistresses throughout the seven seasons of Mad Men, showcasing his inability to stay faithful to his partners.
  • Among his mistresses, Midge, Rachel, and Suzanne stood out as potential long-term options due to their chemistry with Don and their genuine feelings towards him.
  • Despite his numerous affairs, Don often suffered the consequences of his actions, with his infidelities being known within Sterling Cooper and leading to the end of some relationships.

Don Draper (Jon Hamm) had 19 mistresses throughout Mad Men's seven seasons, not counting his three wives, making all of Don Draper's mistresses difficult to keep up with. Mad Men was one of AMC's prestige series that followed the lives and careers of Madison Avenue advertising executives throughout the 1960s. While the other ad men of Sterling Cooper also carried on extra-marital affairs, Donald F. Draper had the most by far. While Draper is married to Betty Hofstadt (January Jones), the character went on to have an unrivaled infidelity streak.

Despite having two kids with Betty, Don cheated on her numerous times as his advertising career took off. In Mad Men season 3, Betty, who long suspected Don's infidelities, learned that he's really Dick Whitman. Betty divorced Don, who then married his secretary, Megan Calvet (Jessica Pare) between seasons 4 and 5. He couldn't stay faithful to Megan either, and despite attempts to keep his private life and work life separate, Don's affairs were well-known within Sterling Cooper, and it's obvious that Don had many more affairs beyond what was shown onscreen. Regardless of his offscreen affairs, there are 19 of Don Draper's mistresses in seven seasons of Mad Men.

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Midge Daniels

DeWitt as Midge Daniels in bed in Mad Men

Midge (Rosemarie DeWitt) is the first Don Draper's mistresses introduced in Mad Men's pilot. Midge is a bohemian artist who is a sharp contrast to the slick Madison Avenue adman. Midge is also a swerve as audiences are initially led to believe Midge is Don's significant other before the end of the first episode reveals Don has a wife, Betty, and two young children in the suburbs. Don's fling with Midge ends in season 1, but she reappears in Mad Men season 4. Sadly, Midge has become addicted to heroin and Jon Hamm's Draper cuts her a check before vanishing from her life.

Rachel Menken

Maggie Siff as Rachel Menken in walking with Don in Mad Men

Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff) was a Sterling Cooper client who owned a department store. Don didn't pursue his mutual attraction to Rachel until after he ended his affair with Midge, but his fling with Rachel didn't last long. However, Don did confess details of his life as Dick Whitman to Rachel. In Mad Men season 2, Don runs into Rachel, who is now married, and in season 3, Don is sad to learn that Rachel died of leukemia.

Joy

Don Draper looking at Joy while laying on bed in Mad Men

Joy (Laura Ramsey) is a wealthy nomad Don meets when he travels to Los Angeles in the Mad Men season 2 episode, "The Jet Set." Don abandons Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) and stays with Joy and her strange, aristocratic friends for a few days before he leaves to visit Anna Draper and then return to New York. Of all the Don Draper mistresses, the free-spirited Joy may have been the youngest of them all.

Bobbie Barrett

Don abd Bobbie smile at each other in a bar in Mad Men

Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw) is the wife and manager of comedian Jimmy Barrett (Patrick Fishler). Don meets Bobbie after Jimmy upsets the owner of his sponsor, Utz Potato Chips, and their affair includes getting in a car accident that requires Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) to help out and let Bobbie stay with her. Don ended their Mad Men season 2 relationship when he learned Bobbie had been gossiping about his prowess in the bedroom.

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Shelly

Shelly in her stewardess uniform in a bar in Mad Men

Shelly (Sunny Mabrey) is one of the most short-lived Don Draper mistresses. Don has a one-night stand with the stewardess when Don travels to Baltimore with Sal Romano (Bryan Blatt) in Mad Men season 3. Shelly invites Don and Sal to dinner with her flight attendant friends, but she is gone after a fire alarm evacuates the hotel. However, the real fallout of Don's Baltimore trip was his discovery that Sal is a closeted homosexual, which later led to Romano's dismissal from Sterling Cooper.

Suzanne Farrell

Suzanne stands in front of a world map in Mad Men

Suzanne Farrell (Abigail Spencer) is Sally's teacher who's the last of Don Draper's mistresses before Betty ends their marriage. Despite her hesitation, Suzanne begins an affair with Don, but it abruptly ends right when they are planning to leave on a vacation together at the end of Mad Men season 3. Betty discovered Don's hidden records that he was really Dick Whitman and confronted him, which immediately put an end to Draper's tryst with Miss Farrell.

Candace

Candace wearing just a bra in Mad Men

In Mad Men season 4, Don moved out of his house with Betty and Jon Hamm's problematic ad man took an apartment in Manhattan. Candace (Erin Cummings) is a sex worker Don frequently hires, and later in season 4, Draper introduces Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) to Candace and her friend to cheer him up when his marriage is on the rocks.

Allison

Allison looks at Don in Mad Men

Allison (Alexa Alemanni) became Don's secretary after Peggy became a copywriter, and, in turn, she became another one of Don Draper's mistresses. Don brings her along when he leaves Sterling Cooper to co-found Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Allison succumbed to her attraction to Don and slept with him after the office Christmas party. She was then heartbroken when Draper pretended like it never happened and gave her cash as a Christmas bonus. Allison quit SCDP, and Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) replaced her with the elderly Ida Blankenship (Randee Heller).

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Bethany Van Nuys

Bethany  smiles at Don in a bar in Mad Men

Bethany Van Nuys (Anna Camp) is a friend of Roger Sterling's young bride Jane (Peyton List) with whom Don is set up. Despite her youth and charms, of all the Don Draper mistresses, Don doesn't have much chemistry with Bethany, and he eventually ends things after a few dates. However, Bethany on his arm does make a couple of key people in Don's life jealous: Ted Chaough (Kevin Rahm) and his wife ran into Don and Bethany at Benihana's, and later, Betty is furious when she finds herself at the same restaurant as Don and Bethany.

Alice and Doris

Doris and Don in bed together in Mad Men

When Don wins a Clio Award in Mad Men season 4's "Waldorf Stories," he goes on a bender that lasts for days. Don goes to bed with Alice (Amy Motta), a woman he picks up at a bar while he's celebrating his Clio, but he later wakes up next to a waitress named Doris (Becky Wahlstrom), whom he doesn't recognize. Worse, Doris calls him "Dick," which means he drunkenly calls himself by his secret birth name and not his carefully maintained Don Draper Mad Men identity during his blackout tryst with the waitress.

Dr. Faye Miller

Cara Buono as Faye Miller in Mad Men with Don Draper

Dr. Faye Miller (Cara Buono) is one of the smartest Don Draper mistresses. Miller is a consultant for a consumer research company working with Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in Mad Men season 4. Faye is initially skeptical about Don's advances, but he reveals the truth about his past as Dick Whitman when Draper has a panic attack about his identity theft and desertion being discovered by the U.S. government. Don ends the relationship after he proposes to Megan, and the heartbroken Faye tells him that she hopes his fiancée knows that Don "only likes the beginnings of things."

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Andrea Rhodes

Andrea looks annoyed in Mad Men

The newlywed Don and Megan run into Andrea Rhodes (Mädchen Amick from Twin Peaks) in the elevator in Mad Men season 5. From Andrea's relentless flirting with Don, it's clear that she was one of the previously unseen Don Draper mistresses. When Don is feverishly ill, Andrea enters his apartment and attempts to sleep with him. Don chokes her to death and hides her body under the bed. It turned out to be only a dream but Don "killing" Andrea was one of Mad Men's most odd and disturbing moments.

Sylvia Rosen

Sylvia in an elevator with Don in Mad Men

Don surprisingly didn't have any known affairs during the early part of his marriage to Megan in Mad Men season 5, but by season 6, Draper is back to his old tricks — and with his neighbor too. Sylvia Rosen (Linda Cardinelli, best known now as Hawkeye's wife Laura Barton in the MCU) is the wife of Don's friend Dr. Arthur Rosen (Brian Markinson). Don and Sylvia carry on their affair under Megan and Arthur's noses until Sally accidentally walks in on her father having sex with his neighbor, which immediately puts an end to it.

Lee Cabot

Lee Cabot smiles at Don on a plane in Mad Men

Technically, Lee Cabot (Neve Campbell) isn't one of Don Draper's mistresses and Don didn't have an affair with her. The two meet on a red-eye flight from LA to New York in Mad Men's season 7 premiere. Draper is clearly attracted to Lee, a wealthy widow, and they share an intimate plane ride home, but Don turns down her invitation to "share a cab" with Lee when they land in New York.

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Amy

Amy and Don outside in Mad Men

Amy (Jenny Wade, whose pre-Mad Men filmography includes as an extra on American Horror Story) is one of Megan's friends in California after she left New York and moved to the West Coast to pursue her acting career in Hollywood. After a party at Megan's house, Don's estranged wife invites him to have a three-way with her and Amy.

Tricia

Tricia smiles at Don on a plane in Mad Men

Tricia (Kirstin Ford) is not only one of the many Don Draper mistresses but yet another stewardess Don became acquainted with when he flew to LA on weekends to visit Megan in Mad Men season 7. Tricia called Don's answering service and left a message that she was in town. When Don calls her over to his apartment, Tricia spills red wine on his white carpet.

Diana Bauer

Diana looks worried in Mad Men

While out on the town with some female companions, Don becomes fixated with a waitress at a diner whom Draper thinks he met before. The waitress' name is Diana Bauer (Elizabeth Reaser from The Haunting of Hill House) and she turns out to be a desperately sad woman who abandoned her son in the Midwest. When she vanishes, Don drives to Wisconsin to try to find her. As Mad Men drew to a close, Diana was an odd affair for Don to fixate on, but she provided some of the impetus for Draper to leave New York heading towards the series finale.

Eve

Eve and Don in bed together in Mad Men

Eve (Fiona Gubelmann) was the last of the Don Draper mistresses in Mad Men's series finale. As Don makes his way to California, he spends time racing cars, and Eve is the local woman he beds. She tries to steal his wallet, but Don catches her and gives her money anyway. No doubt, Don continued having affairs after Mad Men ended, especially if he returned to New York to resume his advertising career.

Which Of His Mistresses Should Don Have Ended Up With

Don drinks alone in a bar in Mad Men

Don Draper on Mad Men wasn't lacking when it came to extramarital affairs. Affairs never solved his problems, though, and most of these women ended up better for it when Don didn't reenter their lives. Nevertheless, Suzanne (Sally's teacher) may have been the right choice for the ad executive, as she was one of the more innocent and seemed to have legitimate feelings for Don. Rachel Menken was another mistress that may have had a real chance with him. Despite their affair being short-lived, the two had obvious chemistry, and Don was honest with her about his true identity. However, none of these women were really a long-term option, and Don Draper in Mad Men often reaped the consequences of his actions.