John Profumo confesses his damaging affair

The secretary of state for war resigns after admitting his liaison with Christine Keeler

There was no impropriety whatsoever in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler.” So announced John Profumo to the House of Commons in March . Yet less than three months later, on ,une, the secretary of state for war confessed the truth to Timothy $ligh, private secretary to prime minister Harold Macmillan, who was out of the country at the time. Stricken with shame, Profumo admitted that he had conducted an affair with a year old showgirl and aspiring model, Christine -eeler – and handed in his resignation.

In itself, the affair would have been deemed inappropriate. $ut the timing of the episode – the Cold War was at its height – and the characters involved fed into the febrile political climate and rocked the Conservative government.

At the centre of the scandal was Stephen Ward, a society osteopath and artist embedded in a shady coterie of inʚuential friends. 'ager to travel to the Soviet Union to paint portraits of its leaders, Ward developed a friendship with Yevgeny Ivanov, a naval attachÅ in London who had been earmarked by MI5 as a potential double agent for the British.

Having engaged in a quasi paternal/sexual friendship with -eeler, Ward turned middle man. During a hedonistic weekend at Cliveden House, the country mansion of 8iscount Astor, he introduced -eeler to Ivanov and Profumo, both of whom began a sexual relationship with her. Though the love triangle was short lived, in summer the press got wind of the tangle.

On ,une , Profumo wrote to Macmillan: “I misled you and my colleagues and the House.” The press had a field day, with the News of the World painting Ward as a predator. Ward fatally overdosed on sleeping medication in August

. The following year, Macmillan’s party was ousted from power. His political career wrecked, Profumo threw himself into charity work – but -eeler was left tragically tarred by the ‘Profumo Affair’.