Villains who have been (or still are) "lovers" of a hero or heroine, whether it was true love, a sexual relationship, marriage, an affair, a one-time fling, or just a lie. These villains can also be the love interest of the hero or heroine, and may want to make the villain or villainess switch sides. The love from the hero may even redeem the villain (though there are some exceptions).

Examples of Hero's Lover Include:

• Han Jae-hee, and Joo Da-hae betrayed their lovers who sent to jail and later they suffered from downfall.
• Arrow was the boyfriend of Zoey until she broke up with him after he cheated in the Junior Reindeer Games and because of his attitude towards his cousin and Zoey's friend and true love Rudolph.
• Baroness: She was Duke's fiancee in the movie before she became evil.
• Cal Hockley was Rose DeWitt Bukater's arrogant finance in an arranged marriage; however, Jack Dawson came along and Rose fell in love with him and came to despise Cal because of his arrogance, violent temper, and ruthlessness.
• Catwoman and Talia al Ghul, who both had romantic involvement with Batman.
• Duncan used to have a relationship with Courtney, but he really loves Gwen more. Later on during the series of Total Drama, Courtney broke up with him first before Gwen did.
• Grant Ward, one of the leaders of HYDRA, developed romantic feelings for Skye shortly before betraying her and S.H.I.E.L.D, then attempted to earn her trust again. Ward also had a brief, purely sexual relationship with Melinda May during his time on Coulson's team.
• Hannibal Lecter had feelings for Clarice Starling or slept with Alana Bloom.
• Kaya had feelings for Krrish while she was disguised as Krrish's wife.
• Mary Sibley was (in her past and present) romantically involved with John Alden.
• Prince Hans manipulates Anna to love him in order to become king of Arendelle.
• Ranger Knudsen has a crush Velma, and he also likes to comment her looks, much to her dismay.
• Tate Langdon was the boyfriend of Violet Harmon.
• Vegeta fell in love with Bulma and eventually married her which helped to make him more of an anti-hero than a full villain.
• Vixen was Robbie's first love interest but she wasn't interested in him and was already in a relationship with Blitzen. Though she did try to use this crush to try and stop him from taking part in the Reindeer Games but failed.
• Creek was the love interest Poppy and he seemed to be aware of it. However, Poppy's crush on Creek ended after he betrayed her and the other Trolls, in order to avoid being eaten by Bergens.

Some exceptions include Rize Kamishiro, who is irredeemable as a result of using Ken Kaneki as a form of bait as means of seduction and then tried disposing him by devouring him after revealing her true intentions. Another example is Bill who used The Bride and had her nearly murdered by both him and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.

In addition, villains that are Pure Evil are fully and completely irredeemable, as they are known for callously disposing their lovers as mere pawns (they would pretend that they have their affair to them as means of deception), often in the most unsparing and brutal fashion after their lovers' usefulness has ceased. In fact, some villains who are indeed Purely Evil do not express love at all as they are completely fueled by hatred and endless desire to kill.