Born Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI did everything from selling church offices to hiring 50 prostitutes in one night to secure his place as history's dirtiest pope. He openly fathered seven children between his two most famous mistresses, and historians believe he had many more illegitimate children.
Guilia Farnese was one of Pope Alexander VI’s famous mistresses.
Pope Pius II, who succeeded Alexander VI’s uncle as pope in 1458 and maintained a good relationship with Rodrigo Borgia, warned him about his sex parties, calling them “unseemly.”
Back then, it was common for high-ranking men of the cloth to have mistresses. Rodrigo Borgia had two famous mistresses: Vannozza dei Cattanei and Giulia Farnese, both married noblewomen. Borgia, however, courted controversy by openly acknowledging that he fathered seven children between them, and historians believe he likely had other illegitimate children whose names have been lost to history.
But Rodrigo Borgia’s controversial love life didn’t stop him from becoming Pope Alexander VI — and his misdeeds only escalated from there.
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