Rich man, poor girl
The death of ’60s sex symbol Christine Keeler, who brought down the British government, is the final chapter in a sad tale of shame and blame
In a post-Weinstein world, the Profumo scandal of 1963 seems laughably tame. By all accounts, Christine Keeler slept with John Profumo on only a handful of occasions. No other participants, animals, illicit substances or instruments of torture were involved. No compromising photographs were taken. And yet this affair is credited with the fall of Britain’s Conservative government. There was, of course, slightly more to it than that. Profumo was secretary of state for war in prime minister Harold Macmillan’s cabinet. The Cold War was raging hotter than ever and Keeler was also seeing a Soviet agent, so naturally the antsy establishment suspected her of transmitting top-secret titbits from one lover to the other.
Keeler met both men through her mentor and housemate, the connected Stephen Ward, who introduced her to wealthy benefactors no doubt attracted by her chess-playing skills. Ward committed suicide before he could be tried for living off the illicit gains of prostitution, but his relationship with Keeler, at least according to the 1989 film Scandal, was as protective as it was predatory.
Keeler was born on February 22 1942. She grew up with her mother, Julie, and Julie’s partner Ted Huish in a converted railway carriage in Wraysbury, southwest of London. At 17 she gave birth to a child who lived six days. She left home shortly afterwards and within a few months of arriving in London was taken on by
Murray’s Cabaret Club in Soho to work as a topless showgirl and hostess. It was there, in 1959, that she met society osteopath Ward, noted for introducing beautiful and available young women to his wealthy patients. She eventually moved into his flat in Wimpole Mews, Bayswater.
Keeler always claimed that her relationship with Ward was platonic; his role was mainly to procure lovers for her. Among other clients, he introduced her to Peter Rachman, a property racketeer, who kept her for a time in a flat he owned.
It was also through Ward that she met Profumo, in June 1961, at Lord Astor’s house at Cliveden, where Ward was entertaining the Soviet naval attaché Yevgeny Ivanov and Keeler in a cottage he rented on the grounds.
Profumo first set eyes on Keeler when she emerged naked from Lord Astor’s swimming pool, her costume having been snatched off her by Ward. Although he was then accompanied by his wife, the actress Valerie Hobson, Profumo was obviously fascinated by the 19-year-old Keeler and before he left Cliveden, asked Ward for her telephone number.
At the time, Keeler was being encouraged by Ward to have an affair with Ivanov. According to some theories, Ward was a minor pawn for MI5, supplying women for intelligence operations, and saw the liaison as a way of discovering information about Ivanov’s activities.
In her later versions of her story, though, Keeler presented Ward as a Soviet spy, alleging he had conducted meetings with the likes of Anthony Blunt and Sir Roger Hollis (the director-general of MI5 once suspected although later exonerated of working for the Russians) in his consulting rooms.
According to Keeler, Ward’s espionage target was not his fellow Soviet agent, Ivanov, but Profumo. Ward’s aim, she claimed, was for her to find out from Profumo through “pillow talk” when nuclear warheads were being moved to Germany.
Whatever the truth of the matter, Keeler soon added Profumo to her lengthening list of conquests. Their affair lasted a few weeks before it was broken off by Profumo after he had apparently been warned by MI5 that she was also seeing Ivanov. The story of the affair leaked, as stories are wont to do, and in March 1963 Profumo lied to the House of Commons about his involvement with Keeler. By that time, the police had already begun investigating Ward, and the truth emerged.
The scandal was devastating for the Conservative government, which was already suffering the consequences of having been in power for 12 years. Profumo was forced to resign and the next year the Macmillan government fell.
Life after the Profumo scandal was not kind to Keeler. Her two brief marriages ended badly. She had sons by both marriages. Her eldest was brought up by her mother and as the two women were not on speaking terms, Keeler lost touch with him. Her younger son she brought up herself, first in a caravan park in Wokingham, Berkshire, before moving back to London. He seems to have been the one bright spot in her life.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Keeler’s son Seymour Platt announced his mother’s death at the age of 75 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder at a hospital near Farnborough in southern England. “As many of you know, my mother, Christine Keeler, fought many fights in her eventful life. Some fights she lost but some she won,” Platt wrote. “She earned her place in British history but at a huge personal price. We are all very proud of who she was.”
As is the way of the world, Profumo was forgiven — he was never able to revive his political career but was awarded a CBE for his services to charity — while Keeler continued to be known as the call girl who toppled the cabinet. —