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About Us & RulesChristine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
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Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by HoratioTarr Wed Dec 06, 2017 12:07 am
She was thrust into the spotlight after enjoying a secret romance with Cabinet minister John Profumo in 1961 at the height of the Cold War.
Scandal engulfed the Establishment after later it emerged that the then 19-year-old Keeler had also been sleeping with Eugene Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché at the Russian Embassy in London.
It nearly toppled the Conservative government, resulting in the resignation of Profumo as well as a series of criminal trials.
Ms Keeler, who had been battling an obstructive lung disease for several months, died on Monday night at the Princess Royal university hospital in Farnborough, Hampshire.
Her son Seymour Pratt, who now lives in Ireland with his family, said the Profumo affair had had a long-lasting effect on his mother's life.
He told the Guardian: 'There was a lot of good around Chris's rather tragic life, because there was a family around her that loved her.
'I think what happened to her back in the day was quite damaging.'
Keeler lived as a recluse under the name Sloane in the years following the scandal - breaking cover only a few times to talk about the affair.
She was briefly married twice - with both ending in divorce - and had two sons as well as a granddaughter.
Ms Keeler met Conservative minister Profumo - 27 years her senior - after leaving her home in Middlesex and working at Murray's Cabaret Club in Soho.
Dr Stephen Ward, a high-flying London osteopath and fixer who ‘procured women’ for leading members of the Establishment, introduced the young dancer to Profumo while at a party thrown by Lord and Lady Astor.
The scandal hit the headlines after seven shots were fired at Ward's house in a quiet Marylebone mews by a jilted boyfriend of Keeler a year later in December 1962.
It emerged the then 19-year-old Keeler had been sleeping with former Secretary of State for War John Profumo, then 48, and at the same time a handsome Russian spy Evgeny Ivanov.
But when the news broke, Profumo lied to the House of Commons about his affair. He was soon found out and Keeler sold her story to the News of The World for £23,000.
In June 1963, he quit in disgrace, amid allegations Keeler had been asked by Ivanov to discover from the War Minister when the West Germans might receive U.S. nuclear missiles to be stationed on their soil.
Profumo had been a rising star of the Tory Party, close to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a favoured visitor at Buckingham Palace, a war hero and the dashing husband of actress Valerie Hobson, one of the great beauties of her day.
But Ms Keeler, whose other lovers have included A-Team actor George Peppard, legendary womaniser Warren Beatty and Prisoner of Zenda star Douglas Fairbanks Jr, said in an interview years later that the Establishment was far more interested in painting it as a sex scandal and chose to ignore whispered claims of a widespread spying network.
She said: 'I know the truth and it is far more shocking than what the public has been fed by the British Establishment. Sex was a game - spying was a serious business.
'Far better that the Establishment be caught with its pants down than involved in stealing secrets. That was the thinking.'
The consequences for the Tory party were catastrophic and Macmillan's Cabinet was shaken by the revelations.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5148841/Christine-Keeler-dies-aged-75.html
Scandal engulfed the Establishment after later it emerged that the then 19-year-old Keeler had also been sleeping with Eugene Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché at the Russian Embassy in London.
It nearly toppled the Conservative government, resulting in the resignation of Profumo as well as a series of criminal trials.
Ms Keeler, who had been battling an obstructive lung disease for several months, died on Monday night at the Princess Royal university hospital in Farnborough, Hampshire.
Her son Seymour Pratt, who now lives in Ireland with his family, said the Profumo affair had had a long-lasting effect on his mother's life.
He told the Guardian: 'There was a lot of good around Chris's rather tragic life, because there was a family around her that loved her.
'I think what happened to her back in the day was quite damaging.'
Keeler lived as a recluse under the name Sloane in the years following the scandal - breaking cover only a few times to talk about the affair.
She was briefly married twice - with both ending in divorce - and had two sons as well as a granddaughter.
Ms Keeler met Conservative minister Profumo - 27 years her senior - after leaving her home in Middlesex and working at Murray's Cabaret Club in Soho.
Dr Stephen Ward, a high-flying London osteopath and fixer who ‘procured women’ for leading members of the Establishment, introduced the young dancer to Profumo while at a party thrown by Lord and Lady Astor.
The scandal hit the headlines after seven shots were fired at Ward's house in a quiet Marylebone mews by a jilted boyfriend of Keeler a year later in December 1962.
It emerged the then 19-year-old Keeler had been sleeping with former Secretary of State for War John Profumo, then 48, and at the same time a handsome Russian spy Evgeny Ivanov.
But when the news broke, Profumo lied to the House of Commons about his affair. He was soon found out and Keeler sold her story to the News of The World for £23,000.
In June 1963, he quit in disgrace, amid allegations Keeler had been asked by Ivanov to discover from the War Minister when the West Germans might receive U.S. nuclear missiles to be stationed on their soil.
Profumo had been a rising star of the Tory Party, close to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a favoured visitor at Buckingham Palace, a war hero and the dashing husband of actress Valerie Hobson, one of the great beauties of her day.
But Ms Keeler, whose other lovers have included A-Team actor George Peppard, legendary womaniser Warren Beatty and Prisoner of Zenda star Douglas Fairbanks Jr, said in an interview years later that the Establishment was far more interested in painting it as a sex scandal and chose to ignore whispered claims of a widespread spying network.
She said: 'I know the truth and it is far more shocking than what the public has been fed by the British Establishment. Sex was a game - spying was a serious business.
'Far better that the Establishment be caught with its pants down than involved in stealing secrets. That was the thinking.'
The consequences for the Tory party were catastrophic and Macmillan's Cabinet was shaken by the revelations.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5148841/Christine-Keeler-dies-aged-75.html
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by Cass Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:29 am
Oh wow. She was very beautiful. Truly one of the 60s icons with that chair photo.
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by Maddog Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:45 am
Cass wrote:Oh wow. She was very beautiful. Truly one of the 60s icons with that chair photo.
Was..........
She didn't age like Sofia, Raquel or Jane.
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by Cass Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:57 am
Maddog wrote:Cass wrote:Oh wow. She was very beautiful. Truly one of the 60s icons with that chair photo.
Was..........
She didn't age like Sofia, Raquel or Jane.
No she didn’t, but then again she didn’t resort to plastic surgery.
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by Maddog Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:18 am
Cass wrote:Maddog wrote:
Was..........
She didn't age like Sofia, Raquel or Jane.
No she didn’t, but then again she didn’t resort to plastic surgery.
Yeah, and she probably didn't make the money required to pay for all of that either.
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by Fred Moletrousers Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:15 am
Christine Keeler and Mandy (they would say that, wouldn't they) Rice Davies...what great characters.
I had just left the RAF and returned to journalism and remember the Profumo scandal as though it were yesterday. Much classier than today's tawdry political scandals.
I had just left the RAF and returned to journalism and remember the Profumo scandal as though it were yesterday. Much classier than today's tawdry political scandals.
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by 'Wolfie Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:36 am
Seeing that footage from the 60s and 70s on tonights news, I reckon it's a fair bet that cigarette smoking was the main cause of her death (they did say she finally succumbed to long-term chronic lung disease..).
She was smoking like a chimney back then..
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by HoratioTarr Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:20 am
Cass wrote:Maddog wrote:
Was..........
She didn't age like Sofia, Raquel or Jane.
No she didn’t, but then again she didn’t resort to plastic surgery.
Nor did she have the money. Age affects everyone differently, and she was also a heavy smoker. I don't doubt she drank too. Not a good combo if you want to retain your looks. Nobody can help getting old and I'm always amazed that people say things like...Ooh she's let herself go! Age isn't kind to anyone.
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by Cass Wed Dec 06, 2017 11:30 am
HoratioTarr wrote:Cass wrote:
No she didn’t, but then again she didn’t resort to plastic surgery.
Nor did she have the money. Age affects everyone differently, and she was also a heavy smoker. I don't doubt she drank too. Not a good combo if you want to retain your looks. Nobody can help getting old and I'm always amazed that people say things like...Ooh she's let herself go! Age isn't kind to anyone.
Exactly. Why pretend?
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by Raggamuffin Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:15 pm
It's amazing what age does to a person - no offence intended.
The Christine Keeler story does fascinate me a bit - all that going on in the swinging 60s and all that. I have wondered before if she ever thought about Stephen Ward - whose death was a tragedy IMO - and I was pleased to read that she did. She said she would probably still be with him (as a friend) if he hadn't died.
The Christine Keeler story does fascinate me a bit - all that going on in the swinging 60s and all that. I have wondered before if she ever thought about Stephen Ward - whose death was a tragedy IMO - and I was pleased to read that she did. She said she would probably still be with him (as a friend) if he hadn't died.
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
by Cass Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:56 pm
Raggamuffin wrote:It's amazing what age does to a person - no offence intended.
The Christine Keeler story does fascinate me a bit - all that going on in the swinging 60s and all that. I have wondered before if she ever thought about Stephen Ward - whose death was a tragedy IMO - and I was pleased to read that she did. She said she would probably still be with him (as a friend) if he hadn't died.
I have always thought the same about Ward.
Did you ever read about where Profumo had an earlier affair with a Nazi? He was a real peach.
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Re: Christine Keeler, the former model at the heart of the Profumo affair that rocked British politics in the 1960s, dies aged 75
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