Profumo affair

The Profumo Affair was a political scandal involving the British Army Secretary John Profumo in 1962 /63.

Overview

Profumo was a member of the Conservative Party from 1960 to 1963 and Secretary of War under Harold Macmillan. He was married to actress Valerie Hobson. The scandal is based on his affair with Christine Keeler the mannequin. Profumo she met in 1961 in a pool party at Cliveden, which was commissioned by the fashionable London osteopath Stephen Ward in the abode of Lord Astor in Buckinghamshire. Ward had brought with Keeler and her friend Mandy Rice -Davies, a kind of prostitution ring. The affair between Profumo and Keeler lasted only a few weeks before Profumo ended it.

Rumors about the affair in 1962 publicly, when it became known that Keeler entertained another relationship with Yevgeny " Eugene" Ivanov, a naval attaché at the Soviet embassy. There were rumors that Keeler had spied the Minister in the Soviet order. They even denied this.

In March 1963 Profumo stated in the House that "nothing somehow unseemly " had been in the relationship with Keeler. He announced libel suits if scandalous allegations brought against him or would be repeated outside the House. In June, Profumo known that he had misled Parliament and resigned on June 5. The government received an official report by Lord Alfred Denning, according to which there was no Soviet espionage job to Keeler and Profumo had betrayed no secrets on 25 September 1963. A month later, the Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan resigned as a result of the scandal. His ailing health had also deteriorated by the Profumo affair. His successor was Sir Alec Douglas -Home.

Ward was accused of livelihood from immoral earnings and committed suicide in August. Keeler was convicted of perjury and sentenced to nine months in prison.

The affair also impacted the election of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Macmillan resigned after an illness and an operation in October 1963. (see also British general election ).

Precipitation in popular culture

Some of the aspects of the Profumo affair were described in 1989 in the film Scandal. Dominant figures are John Hurt as Stephen Ward and Joanne Whalley as Christine Keeler. The role of John Profumo, who plays a supporting role in the film, took over Ian McKellen. In addition, the Profumo affair of one of said in the song We Did not Start the Fire of the singer -songwriter Billy Joel events.

In 2007, London's Greenwich Theatre on the musical A Model Girl, which was the events of the affair from the perspective Keeler. 2013 had the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Ward in London's West End premiere.