Keeler leaves son £77k... and a plea sure truth is told
CHRISTINE KEELER’S final wish was that the ‘truth’ be told about her role in the Profumo affair, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The former showgirl and model, who died last year aged 75, asked in her will that her second son, Seymour Platt – who lives in Co. Longford – ‘do what he can to make sure that the truth is told’.
She also left him her £77,000 estate.
Keeler was 19 when she had affairs with Soviet spy Yevgeny Ivanov and British war minister John Profumo in 1961.
When the love triangle was revealed two years later, it generated scandal and – due to its potential threat to British national security – cost Profumo his political career.
Keeler spent the rest of her life railing against claims that she had been a prostitute.
Stephen Ward, who had introduced her to Profumo and Ivanov, was found guilty of living off the immoral earnings of Keeler and another woman, Mandy RiceDavies.
He attempted suicide the night before his conviction and died several days later. Keeler, who found herself thrust back into the spotlight in 1989 with the release of the film Scandal about the Profumo affair, once said: ‘Even a criminal has the right to a new life, but they made sure I did not have that.
‘They never stopped calling me a prostitute. How can anyone live with that?
‘I took on the sins of everybody… of a generation really.’
Keeler, who married twice, was estranged from her first son, James Levermore.
Seymour, a business analyst who lives in Farnagh, just outside Longford town, told the MoS: ‘I’m one of the least qualified people in the world to talk about my mum’s past – for the simple reason that I wasn’t around when the events took place.
‘My mum would tell me stuff about her past sex life but, like any other teenage boy, I didn’t want to hear about my mum in that regard, so I didn’t listen much.’ Speaking about a forthcoming BBC series, The Trial Of Christine Keeler, he said: ‘I know it’s happening. I’ve read about it in the papers but I don’t know what’s in it. ‘I wasn’t consulted about it. I hope it’s good, I’m sure it will be. ‘My mum is a historical figure and, as such, people are entitled to write about her.’ Asked what it was like having Keeler as a mother, Mr Platt said: ‘To others she was Christine Keeler but to me she was just mum. ‘Every so often I get people like you turning up on my doorstep, especially when someone dies. ‘Then the whole story is dragged back up again. But otherwise she was just a normal mum.
‘Like any son, I have good and bad memories. What I remember most of her was that she was a really protective mother.
‘She didn’t want anything bad to happen to her little boy and she didn’t want me to see or hear anything bad.
‘She didn’t want me to see her with men’ ‘Lucky to have had time with her before she died’
‘I know that’s true of most parents, but with her in particular. She was very protective and I think that’s because of the upbringing she had.
‘She never had men friends around and I always felt that was because of me. She didn’t want me to see her with men.
‘Although she told me about her past, when I was a little boy there was never any sign of the former life she had.