She said the President fathered her child. They called her a liar for 88 years. Then DNA proved she’d been right all along. But by then, she’d been dead for 24 years.1927, NEW YORK Nan Britton walked into a publisher’s office carrying a manuscript that would make her the most hated woman in America. She was 31 years old, unmarried, with an 8-year-old daughter and no money. Every major publishing house had rejected her book. It was called The President’s Daughter. In it, she detailed a secret affair with Warren G. Harding—the 29th President of the United States, who’d died four years earlier. She claimed they’d met in a coat closet in the White House. That he was her daughter’s father. That he’d promised to take care of them, then died before he could. Publishers gave her the same answer: “No one will believe you. You have no proof. We’ll be sued into oblivion. “So Nan did something radical for 1927: she self-published. She scraped together money, found a small press, and printed the book herself. She had no idea she was about to be destroyed. THE AFFAIRN an Britton first saw Warren G. Harding when she was 13 years old in Marion, Ohio. He was her father’s friend—a handsome, charismatic newspaper publisher and politician. He was 31 years older than her. She developed a teenage crush. She hung his picture in her bedroom. She wrote him fan letters. In 1917, when Nan was 20, Harding was a U.S. Senator. She visited him in Washington, D.C.According to Nan, that’s when the affair began. She claimed they met in hotels, in his Senate office, and later—after he became President in 1921—in a coat closet steps from the Oval Office. In 1919, Nan gave birth to a daughter: Elizabeth Ann. She claimed Harding was the father. He couldn’t publicly acknowledge the child—he was married to Florence, who was famously fierce, and he was politically ambitious. But according to Nan, he supported them financially and promised to provide for Elizabeth Ann after his presidency. Then, on August 2, 1923, Warren G. Harding died suddenly of a heart attack while on a speaking tour. Nan was left alone with a 4-year-old daughter and no proof the President had ever known her name. THE BOOK The President’s Daughter was published in July 1927.It was explosive. Nan described intimate details: secret meetings, passionate encounters, clandestine rendezvous in the White House itself. She portrayed Harding as a devoted but trapped lover, and herself as a woman genuinely in love. The Harding family was outraged. They called it fiction, slander, the lies of a gold-digger. The press crucified her. Newspapers called her a prostitute, a fantasist, a woman of “questionable morals” trying to profit from a dead President’s name. Bookstores refused to stock it. Libraries banned it. Reviewers called it “trash. “But people bought it anyway. Over 90,000 copies sold—not because readers believed Nan, but because they loved the scandal. THE LAWSUITEmb oldened by the book’s success, Nan did something even bolder: she sued the Harding estate for child support. She argued that Warren Harding had fathered her daughter and had a legal obligation to support her, even posthumously. The case went to court in 1927.The Harding family brought powerful lawyers. They argued Nan had no evidence—no letters, no photos, no witnesses. Just her word against a dead President’s reputation. Nan’s lawyer presented testimony from people who’d seen them together. It wasn’t enough. The judge dismissed the case. In his ruling, he didn’t even address whether Nan was telling the truth. He simply said that even if Harding was the father, he had no legal obligation because Elizabeth Ann was born out of wedlock. Nan lost. She was ordered to pay court costs she couldn’t afford. A LIFE OF SHAME For the next 64 years, Nan Britton lived as a pariah. She was “the woman who’d accused a President.” The woman who’d written “that book.” The woman nobody believed. She struggled financially, working odd jobs. She raised Elizabeth Ann alone, and her daughter grew up with the stigma of being “the President’s illegitimate daughter”—except nobody believed even that was true. Elizabeth Ann was teased in school. When she asked about her father, Nan told her the truth, but made her promise never to speak of it publicly. “They’ll never believe you,” Nan said. “They’ll call you a liar, just like they call me. “Nan watched as historians wrote Warren Harding’s biographies and dismissed her as a footnote—a delusional woman who’d fabricated an entire relationship. She watched as defenders of Harding’s legacy called her mentally ill. She died in 1991 at age 94, still carrying the label of liar. Elizabeth Ann died in 2005, never publicly acknowledged by the Harding family.2015: THE DNA TEST Ten years after Elizabeth Ann’s death, her grandson—Nan Britton’s great-grandson—decided to seek answers. He contacted AncestryDNA and proposed a DNA test. If Elizabeth Ann really was Harding’s daughter, her descendants would share DNA with other Harding descendants. The Harding family initially refused to participate. But eventually, two of Harding’s nephews agreed to provide samples. On July 28, 2015, AncestryDNA announced the results: Nan Britton had been telling the truth. Elizabeth Ann was Warren G. Harding’s biological daughter. The DNA match was conclusive. Ninety-two years after Harding’s death.
Eighty-eight years after Nan published her book and was destroyed for it.
Twenty-four years after Nan died. The proof finally existed. THE VINDICATION THAT CAME TOO LATE The revelation made international news. Historians scrambled to update Harding biographies. The Harding family issued grudging statements. News outlets that had mocked Nan now ran stories about her “courage. “But Nan Britton wasn’t alive to see it. She’d spent 64 years after publishing her book being called a liar. She’d died without ever receiving an apology or acknowledgment. Her daughter Elizabeth Ann spent her entire life being told her father was a fantasy. Neither lived to see vindication. THE PATTERN Nan Britton’s story isn’t unique. Throughout history, women who accused powerful men—especially of sexual misconduct or secret relationships—were routinely dismissed, mocked, and destroyed. No evidence? You’re lying.
No witnesses? You made it up.
Why did you wait? Why didn’t you keep records? The burden of proof was always, impossibly, on the woman. And when a woman did speak up—like Nan did—she was punished for it. Her reputation shredded. Her credibility destroyed. Her life ruined. “Believe women” is a modern phrase addressing an ancient problem. THE TRUTH Warren G. Harding is generally considered one of the worst presidents in American history—corrupt, ineffective, scandal-plagued. But for nearly a century, his defenders protected his personal reputation by destroying Nan Britton’s. Now we know she was telling the truth. The President did have an affair with a woman 31 years younger.
He did father an illegitimate child.
He did meet her secretly in the White House. And when he died, his family left her and his daughter to face poverty and shame alone. She told the truth in 1927.The world called her a liar for 88 years. Science proved her right in 2015.But by then, she’d been dead for 24 years. Sometimes vindication comes too late to matter. Sometimes the truth arrives after everyone who needed to hear it is gone. But it’s still the truth. And it still matters. Nan Britton (1896-1991): The woman who told the truth and was destroyed for it—until DNA proved her right, 24 years after her death. Remember her name. Remember what they did to her for telling the truth. And remember: when a woman says “this happened,” maybe we should start by believing her—instead of waiting 88 years for DNA proof.
