At just 19, Christine Keeler was embroiled in one of the UK’s most infamous sex scandals and spent the rest of her life in its shadow. With the bbcone miniseries The Trial Of Christine Keeler approaching, we look at her heartbreaking story.
“He knew the technique, what to say and when to brush his hand on your arm or accidentally touch your breast,” sheProfumo, then the Secretary of State for War, was at Cliveden to see Lord Astor, and passing the house’s pool he spotted Keeler bathing in it. The pair were introduced and began a relationship. They met at Ward’s house, had cocktails with Profumo’s pals, including Viscount Ward, Secretary of State for Air, and went for drives around London.
Soon, bits and pieces of the story began leaking out. Profumo had not been that careful in concealing the relationship – all those drinks with his political pals, all those dates in London – so it was only a matter of time. The whole thing came to a head in 1963 when, during Edgecombe’s trial in March, Keeler missed her appointment with the court to give a statement.
In an official statement, Profumo said that “there was no impropriety whatsoever in my acquaintance with Miss Keeler”. At first, both Keeler and Ward confirmed his words. As did Lord Astor. But by April 1963, with an official investigation pending into Ward’s own ties with Russia, police hauled Keeler in for questioning and she revealed the truth. Yes, she had been in a sexual relationship with Profumo. Yes, she had also been in a relationship with Ivanov.
Ward’s trial took place in July and August 1963, but before it could be officially concluded Ward killed himself while imprisoned. He died 3 August, 1963. Profumo disappeared from political life but began charitable work, earning a CBE in 1975. He lived until he was 90, dying in March 2006. After his exit from politics, the conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan became ill and stepped down.
Keeler was charged with perjury, having lied under oath about her relationship with Profumo, and served six months in Holloway prison. After her release, she spent the remainder of her life in London, penning three autobiographies and consulting on a 1989 film calledabout the affair. Joanne Whalley played Keeler, Bridget Fonda Rice-Davies and Ian Mckellen Profumo. A BBC miniseries, called
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