Awkward! Blair lost for words as pal stuns him with Wendi question
IT IS a subject that has already caused Tony Blair much painful embarrassment. So the last person he expected to publicly question him about his close friendship with Rupert Murdoch’s former wife Wendi Deng was his loyal henchman Alastair Campbell.
Yet to the evident surprise of the former Prime Minister, Campbell raised the thorny topic during an hour-long interview for GQ magazine to mark the 20th anniversary of Blair’s first General Election victory – and the result was totally awks!
It happens close to the end of their filmed discussion and completely wrongfoots Blair, leaving him momentarily lost for words.
As he stumbles on, with lots of awkward pauses, Campbell can be heard off-camera having a giggling fit.
The former No 10 spin doctor asks his old boss why ‘we got so close’ to media magnate Murdoch.
Blair replies: ‘We got close because we had been absolutely savaged by the media throughout the Eighties and Nineties.’ Campbell then interjects: ‘You only really fell out with Murdoch when he started getting angry about Wendi.’ Without disagreeing with this assessment, Blair pauses awkwardly before attempting to move the conversation on.
Campbell, who quit Downing Street in 2003, was referring to Wendi’s close friendship with Blair – as first revealed by The Mail on Sunday – which was laid bare in a note in which she confessed how attractive she found the former PM.
In 2013 this newspaper also disclosed that Blair and Ms Deng stayed overnight at one of Murdoch’s homes without the tycoon’s knowledge – and how a furious Murdoch ended all ties with Blair, his former friend and ally, because he felt ‘betrayed’. Murdoch later divorced Ms Deng.
He is now married to Jerry Hall, the former wife of Sir Mick Jagger. Curiously, the reference to Blair’s friendship with Ms Deng – which is said to have been a contributory factor in Murdoch’s divorce – was omitted from the lengthy GQ article. However, it remains in the online clip of the hour-long interview which is intended to be an ‘uncut’ version.
Blair has never publicly discussed his relationship with Ms Deng, except to say that nothing improper took place.