16 November 2023 , 17:53
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What happened to the woman vilified for bringing down a Conservative government at the height of the Cold War?
English model and topless showgirl Christine Keeler was at the centre of the scandalous Profumo Affair that embarrassed the British government and led to a prime minister's resignation. The central crisis arose from perceived national security risks arising due to the 19-year-old Keeler's sexual involvement with British government minister John Profumo, and also Soviet diplomat Captain Yevgeny Ivanov.
The drama series stars Kingsman actress Sophie Cookson as Keeler, Ben Miles as Profumo, and James Norton as osteopath and high society fixture Stephen Ward, the man who introduced Keeler to Profumo. But what happened to the real-life Keeler when the explosive affairs ended?
What happened to the real Christine Keeler after scandalous Profumo affair?
Picture of John Profumo taken in 1963 (PA)
Christine Keeler had been a model (Getty Images)Despite having had a brief sexual relationship in 1961, it was not until March 1963 that the trysts between Secretary of State for War John Profumo and Christine Keeler came to media attention. Keeler had been a model and topless showgirl at a dance club in London when she met osteopath Stephen Ward and eventually moved in with him, becoming captivated by his charm and glittering social network of diplomats, celebrities, aristocrats, and artists.
The pair had a platonic but affectionate friendship, as Keeler enjoyed a variety of affairs amongst acquaintances in Ward's circle. This period included sexual relations with both Profumo and Soviet diplomat and intelligence agent Captain Yevgeny Ivanov. Following these affairs, Keeler became caught in a jealous rivalry between her two lovers: jazz singer Aloysius "Lucky" Gordon and jazz promoter Johnny Edgecombe.
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After Keeler broke off her affair with the violent Edgecombe who had slashed Gordon's face, Edgecombe visited Ward's home where she was staying and fired shots at the building, prompting his arrest and the media investigating Keeler. Profumo denied the affair in Parliament with the full support of many of his government colleagues.
However, as the scrutiny continued, Profumo eventually confessed to the affair and resigned from Parliament and government, causing a loss in confidence in the Conservative government and the resignation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. They would go on to lose the 1964 general election to Harold Wilson and the Labour Party.
Profumo would go on to work at London charity Toynbee Hall for the rest of his life, receiving a CBE from The Queen in 1975 and being invited to Margaret Thatcher's 70th birthday party where he was seated next to the monarch. Elsewhere, Stephen Ward was investigated for immorality offences as more rumours and salacious tales surfaced regarding his social circles.
On 3 August 1963, Ward committed suicide before the verdict of his trial was revealed: he was then found guilty of profiting from the immoral earnings of Keeler and her friend, Mandy Rice-Davies. Meanwhile, earlier in the year, Keeler had accused her lover Gordon of assault and he was arrested, eventually being sentenced to three years in prison when two principal witnesses for the defence could not be found.
Around the time of Ward's trial, Gordon's conviction was overturned at the Court of Appeals when the key witnesses were found, and Keeler was arrested for providing false evidence in court, eventually being sentenced to nine months in prison from December 1963, for which she served four and a half months.
Following the scandal, Keeler's presence in the media continued but began to wain. She married twice, from which she had two children, but these were both brief. The legal costs from her troubles took away much of the profit she earned from her media appearances. She said of this time in the 1970s: "I was not living, I was surviving".
Keeler soon began to publish her own views on the Profumo affair and refuted the findings from senior judge Lord Tom Denning, who concluded in his investigation of the scandal that there had been no substantial security risks from the scandal and that the security services and government had acted appropriately. She also claimed that she had become pregnant from her affair with Profumo and had undergone a painful abortion to end the pregnancy.
Throughout her life, Keeler always spoke very highly of Stephen Ward, who was later revealed to have acted as a backchannel for MI5 with the Soviet Union through his friendship with Ivanov, with his trial now accused of being based on political retribution for the Profumo scandal.
Ward, who was a prolific artist, and his portrait of Keeler was acquired by the National Gallery in 1984. Despite some media appearances - including a role in a Bryan Ferry music video in 1988 - Keeler was largely private in her personal life. In 2012, however, she revealed that she has had difficulties with her children, as the media portrayals and slut-shaming from politicians and public figures took its toll.
According to The Sun, Keeler said: "My children don’t want to be associated with that bloody whore Christine Keeler. It’s awful but that’s the way it is." On December 5, 2017, Christine's son Seymour Platt announced that his mother "passed away last night at about 11.30 pm" on December 4 in London following a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Keeler was 75 when she died. When discussing how society had treated her throughout and after the scandal, Keeler said: "I took on the sins of everybody, of a generation, really."
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