Margaret Thatcher, who was married to her husband Denis for more than 50 years, is said to have had an affair early in her career as an MP and another with a separate politician
Margaret Thatcher allegedly had two affairs outside her marriage, according to bombshell claims in a new book.
The former Tory Prime Minister, who was married to her husband Denis for more than 50 years, is said to have had an affair early in her career as an MP and another with a separate politician.
Renowned journalist Tina Gaudoin, in her book The Incidental Feminist, also claims Mrs Thatcher had an “extracurricular friendship” with a close aide who touched her knee during dinners.
The author said people she spoke to for her book said Mrs Thatcher was surprisingly sexy. “A lot of people I spoke to said that she [Thatcher] was far more sexy in person than she appeared to be,” Gaudoin said. “A lot of people said that when she entered the room there was a definite frisson.”
Gaudoin said multiple sources, including former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken, told her that Mrs Thatcher was involved with somebody else “very early on in her parliamentary career”, and then “quite possibly” later with Sir Humphrey Atkins, the former Conservative MP for Spelthorne and a former Cabinet minister under Mrs Thatcher.
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Asked about Atkins, Aitken said: “There were knowledgeable rumours to that effect at the time. His good looks might have appealed to her, but his political brain was hopeless.”
Another politician told Gaudoin: “The joke about Atkins was that for someone who was not very good, he kept getting promoted. Now why was that?”.
Insiders also told the author that Lord Bell, Mrs Thatcher’s head of PR, had told them he had an “extracurricular friendship” with her and that “one of her favourite things” was when he put his hand on her knee “and other stuff” during dinners. Gaudoin adds: “He was unlikely to have got to what the Americans delicately term ‘third base’ (or even first or second).”
Lord Moore, who wrote Mrs Thatcher’s authorised biography, said: “I have heard the Atkins rumour in the past, but there is no evidence that I have ever seen to support it.”
He added: “My own sense is that it is vanishingly unlikely. I have never before heard the Tim Bell rumour. Again, I think it vanishingly unlikely.”
Discussing her latest work at Cheltenham Literature Festival, and reported by festival sponsor the Times, Gaudoin also claims that Mr Thatcher had a surprisingly close friendship with the former model Mandy Rice-Davies, known for her association with Christine Keeler and her role in the Profumo affair. Ms Keeler’s 1961 fling with War Secretary John Profumo helped topple the Tory Government.
Gaudoin claims that after Ms Thatcher departed Downing Street, her husband exchanged affectionate letters with Ms Rice-Davies which began “Mandy dear” and talked about military history and holidaying together.
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