Major's fling with EdwinaBy DUNCAN LARCOMBE
EX-MP Edwina Currie sensationally revealed last night that she had a four-year affair with former Prime Minister John Major.
Both were married at the time. Mr Major was a Tory whip and Mrs Currie a backbencher.
Mrs Currie, 56 — now a Radio 5 star — reveals the closely-guarded secret in her newly-published diary.
She says she seduced Mr Major and had regular sex sessions in London. She claims she continued to love him after she ended the affair in 1988.
Last night Mr Major described the affair as: “The one event in my life of which I am most ashamed and I have long feared it would be made public.”
He said that his wife Norma, whom he married in 1970, knew of the affair for many years and had long forgiven him.
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| Major ... regular secret romps |
The revelation of the affair throws fresh light on the events that brought down Mr Major’s government in a welter of sleaze.
He initially tried to stand by colleagues such as David Mellor when their affairs were exposed — knowing that he had a secret love in his own background.
Last night, in an interview in The Times, Mrs Currie repeatedly burst into tears as she defended her decision to spill the beans.
She tells of the pain she feels over the lost love, saying: “The most hurtful thing is to look at John’s autobiography and find that I wasn’t even in the index.”
Mrs Currie said that part of the fun of the affair was “the thought that there was John sitting in the Whip’s Office, sometimes discussing other people’s affairs and keeping very quiet about his own. And I love that feeling.”
She believes that Mr Major’s wife Norma, now 60, could be more understanding than people might expect about the disclosure. “Don’t forget, I loved John and so does she. So we’ll have seen the same things in him.”
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Campaigning couple ... John and Norma
after Tories' 1992 election victory |
Defending her exposure of the affair, Mrs Currie says: “This is the year 2002, nearly 2003, all these things are a very long time ago, before John was Prime Minister, and since then he has won an election and lost an election, and we’ve lost one another . . .
“The Tory party is in danger of disappearing entirely and the things we thought about and cared about all those years ago have become footnotes in history.
“The making of a Prime Minister was a profoundly significant piece of history and this is part of the story that no one else knows and no one else has ever been able to think about.”
The affair ended with Mr Major’s promotion by Mrs Thatcher to Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1988.
Mrs Currie says their close friendship continued and her love for Major continued between 1990 and 1997 when he was at Number 10.
Edwina was MP for Derbyshire South from 1983 to 1997 and served in the Health Department in Thatcher’s government from 1986 to 1988.
She led health campaigns but resigned after claiming most British eggs were infected with salmonella.
Mrs Currie turned down Mr Major’s request to return to government in 1992 and started a career as a best-selling writer.
After losing her seat in the 1997 General Election she got a job with the BBC and has her own weekend radio show.
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Former partners ... Edwina with her
first husband Ray in 1991 |
Mrs Currie married first husband Raymond in 1972 and they had two daughters. The couple split after 25 years and she now lives in Surrey with second husband John Jones, 60, a retired Met Police detective.
They married last year — when she boasted they were enjoying the sex lives of “18-year-olds”.
After being told on TV of a survey saying that the average couple aged 45-60 have sex three times a month, she replied: “Isn’t it nice to be above average? “It gets better as you get older - you know where your knees go.”
Edwina has written ten books — including six steamy novels based on politics such as Chasing Men and A Parliamentary Affair.
Mrs Major wrote an authorised biography of the opera singer Joan Sutherland and a book about the PM’s country home Chequers.
Mr Major married Norma in 1970. They have a son and daughter.
He became an MP in 1979 but quit his Huntingdonshire seat at last year’s election.
The former bank executive was Prime Minister from 1990 until he lost the 1997 election.
