Model at center of Britain’s sex-and-spy scandal
LONDON — Christine Keeler, the central figure in the sex-and-espionage Profumo scandal that rocked Cold War Britain and brought down a Conservative government, has died. She was 75.
In a Facebook post, son Seymour Platt said Keeler died Monday at a hospital near Farnborough in southern England after suffering for many years from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“My mother, Christine Keeler, fought many fights in her eventful life. Some fights she lost, but some she won,” he said. “She earned her place in British history but at a huge personal price. We are all very proud of who she was.”
Keeler was a model and nightclub dancer in 1963 when she had an affair with British War Secretary John Profumo. When it emerged that Keeler had also slept with a Soviet naval attache with ties to Russian intelligence, the combination of sex, wealth and national security issues caused a sensation and helped topple Britain’s Conservative government.
The married Profumo eventually resigned in disgrace after lying to the House of Commons about his relationship with Keeler. He threatened at the time to sue anyone who suggested there had been any inappropriate behavior with her.
The stunning sex scandal shed light on a previously well-hidden world of sex- and alcohol-fueled orgies among Britain’s political elite.
Keeler moved on after the scandal. She was married twice and had two sons.
“My life has been cursed by sex I didn’t particularly want,” Keeler said in a memoir.