The profumo affair
The Cold War espionage scandal rocked 1960s Britain after Christine Keeler was introduced to the secretary of state for war John Profumo in the swimming pool at Cliveden, the country house of Lord Astor, in 1961.
The introductions were made by society osteopath Stephen Ward who had met the 19-yearold showgirl in the topless Soho cabaret club where she worked. Profumo, who was married to actress Valerie Hobson, embarked on a brief affair with Keeler but in March 1963, after their liaison had ended, Profumo denied any impropriety in a public statement to the House of Commons.
It then emerged that Ward had also introduced Keeler to Soviet naval attaché Captain Yevgeny Ivanov with whom she had simultaneously been having a relationship. As the furore over the love triangle and possible security risk grew, Profumo confirmed that he had lied and resigned from Parliament.
Ward was arrested on immorality charges, fingered as a possible Soviet agent and committed suicide before his trial verdict was announced. In October 1963, his reputation tarnished by the affair, Conservative PM Harold Macmillan resigned. The following year Labour’s Harold Wilson led his party to victory. conquests”. His dalliances with scores of women included screen icon Marilyn Monroe, whose three-month affair with him began in February 1962 at a New York dinner party and ended after she drew attention to it with her breathy rendition of Happy Birthday to the president at a fundraising event in Madison Square Garden in May.
Before marrying Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953 Kennedy enjoyed dalliances with strippers, flight attendants, secretaries and a woman suspected by the FBI of being a German spy.
Marriage didn’t change his sexual agenda and he went on to have affairs with women including White House intern Mimi Alford and Los Angeles socialite Judith Campbell Exner. about an alleged affair with singer Gennifer Flowers.
Many women claim to have had affairs with the 42nd US president and he has admitted to sexual encounters with Flowers – about which he testified under oath in 1998 to confirm the rumours – as well as White House intern Monica Lewinsky. It was the repercussions of what he described as an “inappropriate relationship” with the 22-year-old between 1995-1997 that led to Clinton’s impeachment in December 1998 by the House of Representatives. He was acquitted by the Senate and so narrowly avoided being removed from office.
Clinton has also been publicly accused of three counts of sexual misconduct, all of which he adamantly denies. Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey and Paula Jones re-emerged into the public sphere as critics of his wife 12-year-long and model Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. David Mellor was the 43-year-old married secretary of state for national heritage when in 1992 he fell for 31-year-old actress Antonia de Sancha whom he had met through a mutual friend.
Their affair was conducted in a flat lent to the actress by a friend but it later emerged some details of the kiss-and-tell story she sold for £35,000 weren’t true – including the now infamous stories that Mellor made love in a Chelsea FC shirt and enjoyed spanking and toe-sucking.
Mellor quit the Cabinet when it was revealed he had accepted a free holiday from socialite Mona Bauwens, the daughter of a Palestinian Liberation Organisation official. Two years later Mellor admitted a second affair and in 1995 was divorced from Judith, his wife of 21 years.