Janet Hewlett-Davies, the Downing Road deputy press secretary who it is claimed had a secret affair with Harold Wilson within the Nineteen Seventies, caught the attention of a controversial American president.
On a state go to to the UK in 1974, Richard Nixon – simply months earlier than he resigned over the Watergate scandal – mistook her for Marcia Williams when he noticed her in 10 Downing Road.
In accordance with The Instances, the then prime minister’s press secretary Joe Haines claims Mr Wilson – prime minister from 1964-70 and 1974-76 – admitted to him in non-public that he had cheated on his spouse Mary with Ms Hewlett-Davies.
Throughout his time in workplace and subsequently, Mr Wilson was the topic of rumours of an affair along with his high-profile political secretary Marcia Williams, who later grew to become Baroness Falkender. He at all times denied it and efficiently sued on one event.
The truth is, whereas Mr Wilson was prime minister Ms Williams had two sons with a senior political journalist, Walter Terry, who was political editor of the Every day Mail and later the Solar.
Harold Wilson was prime minister between 1964 and 1970 – and once more from 1974 to 1976. Pic: PA
Mr Nixon’s amusing mistake is revealed within the latest biography of Mr Wilson by the Labour MP and shadow minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, who describes what occurred in a chapter about Wilson’s return to Downing Road for his second time period as prime minister.
In a passage about Mr Wilson’s bitter battles with a number of nationwide newspapers over allegations towards him and Ms Williams, Mr Thomas-Symonds writes: “They have been heady days, although there was some gentle aid.
“Nixon, on a state go to to Britain, was in Quantity 10 on 7 April and noticed Haines’ deputy Janet Hewlett-Davies, pondering she was Marcia Williams. ‘Is that this the one we have been studying about?'”
Ms Hewlett-Davies was so low-profile, in contrast with the larger-than-life personalities of Mr Haines and Baroness Falkender, that the Nixon gaffe is the one reference to her in Mr Thomas-Symonds’ Wilson biography.
She isn’t even talked about in an earlier biography by historian Philip Ziegler.
Breaking his silence after 50 years, Mr Haines advised The Instances that Ms Hewlett-Davies, who was his deputy, admitted to her boss that she had an affair with Mr Wilson earlier than his resignation in 1976.
Now 96, Mr Haines advised the paper: “The astonishing factor is that nobody else, however me, knew of Janet’s affair with Wilson, for which she neither sought any form of profit by any means.
“It was actually a love match on her facet, and the enjoyment which Wilson flaunted to me urged that it was for him too.”
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In his feedback to The Instances, Mr Haines additionally says the affair vastly elevated Wilson’s morale within the two years earlier than he resigned as prime minister on the grounds of in poor health well being in 1976.
In accordance with The Instances, the one different particular person mentioned to have recognized about their romance on the time was Bernard Donoughue, now a veteran Labour peer, who was then the top of the coverage analysis unit in 10 Downing Road.
He advised The Instances that Mr Wilson advised him his friendship with Ms Hewlett-Davies “was making him happier than he had ever been”.
An aide claims the affair ‘elevated’ Harold Wilson’s morale. Pic: PA
Like Mr Wilson, Ms Hewlett-Davies was married on the time of their relationship and was 22 years youthful than him.
She died aged 85 final 12 months, after a profession in Whitehall communications and later working as PR chief to the controversial media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who was then the proprietor of the Labour-supporting Mirror group of newspapers.
Throughout his time working in No. 10, Mr Haines was an irascible Downing Road press secretary whose relations with political journalists grew to become so dangerous that at one level he suspended the every day briefings.
Within the Home of Commons Press Gallery, there are cartoons on the partitions of the then foyer journalists – together with Mr Terry, Ms Williams’ lover – locked out of Downing Road.
Mr Haines later grew to become a Every day Mirror columnist and government underneath Maxwell and has by no means been wanting an opinion on politics and – certainly – political journalism.
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Mr Donoughue, now 89, usually attends the Home of Lords and conferences of the Parliamentary Labour Get together on a Monday night.
A cheerful and pleasant soul, he was one of many sources for the BBC comedy Sure Minister, together with Baroness Falkender.
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