SO WHAT BECAME OF THE OTHERS?

MANDY RICE-DAVIES

THE good-time girl who provided the most memorable quote of the whole Profumo scandal was Christine Keeler’s friend Mandy Rice-Davies.

She did so as she was being quizzed in the witness box of the Old Bailey. Told that Viscount Astor had denied her claim he had sex with her, she coolly replied: ‘Well he would, wouldn’t he?’

Rice-Davies, a model and nightclub dancer, grew up in Solihull in the West Midlands, the daughter of a former policeman who set up a tyre business.

But aged 16, she set off for London to make her fortune. While working as a nightclub hostess, she met infamous slum landlord Peter Rachman, then 41, and became his mistress.

After his death a few years later, she moved in with her friend, Christine Keeler, to a flat owned by ‘society osteopath’ Stephen Ward. Just weeks later, the Profumo scandal blew up.

It was at Ward’s trial for allegedly pimping the two girls that she produced her immortal quote — and, despite the scale of the scandal, Rice-Davies managed to prosper for the rest of her life. She sang professionally, starred in an X-rated film at the age of 38 and married three times.

‘As far as I’m concerned, the Profumo affair was just a pimple,’ she once said. ‘My life has been one long descent into respectability.’

Rice-Davies, who had one daughter, died in December 2014 aged 70, soon after being diagnosed with cancer.

JOHN PROFUMO

HE WAS the politician at the centre of the scandal that bore his name — and the man who lied in the House of Commons in a bid to deny having had an affair with Christine Keeler.

John Profumo never managed to rebuild his career.

But he did go on to attempt to make amends for his behaviour by committing to long years of charity work. His quiet labours helped ensure the remarkable loyalty of his wife Valerie, despite his infidelity.

Asked about the scandal in 1987, he replied: ‘I have remained silent for 22 years. I intend to continue doing so.’

Educated at Harrow and Oxford, Profumo became Britain’s youngest MP at 25 in 1940, and by 1960, was Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government. He was being tipped to become Foreign Secretary when his affair became public after Labour’s Barbara Castle asked in the House of Commons whether he was involved with Keeler.

His reply that there had been ‘no impropriety whatsoever’ led to his downfall three months later.

He confessed to his wife — who forgave him — then resigned days later.

For a year, he did nothing, but in 1964 suddenly volunteered to work unpaid, three days a week, at Toynbee Hall in East London, where the old, homeless and alcoholic were cared for.

Soon, he was president of the charity, the Queen opened a new home he established for children, and he was given a CBE in 1975. He died from a stroke in 2006, at 91, leaving a son.

VISCOUNT ASTOR

HE WAS an enormously rich aristocrat who mixed with the leading lights in the Tory Government.

But Viscount ‘Bill’ Astor destroyed his gilded life by allegedly having sex with nightclub dancer Mandy RiceDavies, and helping introduce her friend Christine Keeler to John Profumo.

The latter event famously took place at Astor’s magnificent ancestral Thames-side stately home, Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, which he shared with his third wife, Bronwen.

Astor was said to have acceded to a request by his osteopath, alleged pimp Stephen Ward, to bring Rice-Davies to Cliveden to see if she knew how to use her cutlery in the right order.

Apparently, a one-night stand ensued — and his later denial of it was widely ridiculed, thanks to Rice-Davies’ sharp performance at the Old Bailey.

The Astors’ society friends began dropping them — and police even considered charging him with allowing a brothel to operate on his estate.

He died soon after the scandal, aged 58, in 1966. The Astors’ son, the current Lord Astor, is the stepfather of Samantha Cameron.