Here’s my thought on the affair/being a mistress.
Even if she admitted to fully knowing he was married and had the affair anyway, I think public opinion of her would have been different if there was any remorse or empathy for Shannan and the girls or ANYONE other than herself. Yes, of course there would have always been people calling her names. But if she said “yes, I knew. And I’m so sorry. And I never imagined this would happen. How can I help? What can I do to help?” What would have been the outcome?
Instead, she plopped down into that interview chair, talked endlessly about her macros, whines about her cold, sneered about Shannans home and finances, made fun of her job. Called her best friend whose father just died “retarded”. She only showed concern for herself. She got ahead of it all and deleted evidence. She had a fake lying glossy spread in a newspaper to try to make herself look good. She cared about nothing, not one thing or person, other than herself and possible book deals and finances, and diet, and public opinion.
She’s not a good person. And it isn’t JUST because of the affair. That is one drop in the bucket of her wretchedness. If she had just admitted it, showed remorse and concern, helped, I wouldn’t think as poorly of her. But she didn’t. I could have overlooked the affair if she had had any kind of emotion about what happened. But she didn’t.