Issa's Not Alone: Female TV Characters Who Cheated

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Ever since Issa cheated on Lawrence with Daniel on Insecure, people on social media have acted like a woman cheating on a man is unforgivable and unheard of.

HBO

Psych!

Never mind the fact that in real life, research has shown that women are cheating almost just as much as men these days, but female characters in happy and unhappy relationships alike have been stepping out on TV for years now. Issa’s decisions may have left folks on either Team Issa or Team Lawrence, but she’s not alone in running into the arms of another man — or woman — on the boob tube.

BET

Helen Patterson – Being Mary Jane

In this most recent season, Helen Patterson, the matriarch of the family, shocked a lot of people when she stepped out on Paul Sr. for an old flame (old as in a boo from 40 years earlier) named Frank who just so happened to be a close friend of her husband. Too close to home, Helen.

BET

Mary Jane Patterson – Being Mary Jane

Like mother, like daughter. Before Helen stepped out on her marriage, earlier in Season 4, Mary Jane stepped out on boyfriend Lee. She had some passionate sex on the Great Day USA morning show desk with Justin. She would eventually bail on her relationship with Lee to be with the brooding producer.

ABC

Annalise Keating – How to Get Away With Murder

Sam wasn’t the only one stepping outside of his marriage (he was the only one whose mister/mistress ended up dead though). Annalise, of course, had quite the fiery affair with hunky detective Nate Lahey.

UPN

Toni Childs – Girlfriends

Rewind, right? If you’ll recall, in Season 2, Toni cheated on starving artist Greg with a well-to-do handsome doctor — who gave her chlamydia. Things went left when Joan accidentally spilled the beans to Greg. He got back at Toni by taking her back, only to turn around and cheat on her in her home as revenge.

HBO

Carrie Bradshaw – Sex and the City

Mr. Big, as we would find out by the end of SATC, was one suitor Carrie Bradshaw just couldn’t shake. Despite having a healthy relationship with Aidan, Bradshaw ended up cheating with Big. When she told Aidan (at Charlotte’s wedding nonetheless), he couldn’t move past it and they broke up. They would eventually reunite, move in together and get engaged, only to break up again when it was clear Aidan wanted to marry Carrie to take her off the market (and away from Mr. Big) because he didn’t trust her. Ironically, in the second SATC movie, she cheated on Mr. Big with Aidan after a chance encounter in Abu Dhabi.

Starz

Tasha St. Patrick – Power

Tasha tried to make it work, lawd knows she did. Sadly, Ghost only seemed to have eyes for old flame Angela. So even though they have stayed married four seasons in, Tasha has looked for love (and sexual healing) elsewhere, including with (the late) Shawn and most recently with Ghost’s lawyer Terry at a time when it seemed that Ghost wanted to reconcile.

Netflix

Piper Chapman – Orange Is the New Black

Piper was never as innocent as she would have liked people to believe. She actually cheated twice, stepping out on her fiancé Larry with partner-in-crime Alex Vause, and later, she would cheat on Alex with Stella in Season 3.

NBC

Freddie Brooks – A Different World

Would you cheat on super fine Shazza Zulu for Ron Johnson? Freddie Brooks sure did.

BET

Tasha Mack – The Game

If you were still watching The Game near the end of the series, Tasha Mack found herself in a love triangle with Pookie and Rick Fox (who plays a sports agent version of himself). This triangle involved a pregnancy, an engagement and an accidental shooting. Talk about messy.