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Harold Wilson had a secret affair throughout his second time period as prime minister with considered one of his workers members, it has been revealed.
The Labour chief, who was in workplace for eight years throughout the Sixties and 70s, had a relationship with his deputy press secretary Janet Hewlett-Davies throughout his ultimate 12 months in Downing Street.
His affair, which had remained a secret for over half a century, was revealed final evening by Joe Haines, his former press secretary, in an interview with The Times newspaper.
Lord Wilson had lengthy been the topic of infidelity rumours, which he had staunchly denied and had even efficiently sued on one event.
The married father-of-two had persistently refuted allegations he was conducting an affair with his political secretary, Marcia Williams, later Baroness Falkender, but his true relationship with Ms Hewlett-Davies remained beneath wraps.
On Thursday, Lord Wilson’s former adviser Bernard Donoughue instructed the BBC’s Today programme that each he and Mr Haines had determined to disclose the half-century-old secret following Ms Hewlett-Davies’ loss of life in October final 12 months.
He mentioned: “We kept it secret because we thought it would be used damagingly against him at that time.
“There’s no reason for that now, and we waited until they had both died – Wilson some time ago and Janet just a few months ago, and so I felt as a sometime historian this was important to go in the historical record of Harold Wilson.”
Lord Donoughue mentioned the then-prime minister had cryptically confessed the affair to him throughout a stroll round Number 10 in direction of the top of his premiership.
He instructed the BBC: “He, in a very Wilsonian way, because he wasn’t a very direct person, he said he was very pleased I was a friend of Janet.
“So I, knowing him, know that he would not have raised that unless he had got some interest or concern, so I knew that he was asking me: did I know about him and Janet?
“And I replied by saying I thought Janet was a lovely and terrific person and I then added, in a Wilsonian way, which I had learned from him, and I’m very pleased your relationship is so close and so good.
“And that way I let him know that I knew, and then he said that she was a lovely person and he had never been happier.”
He added that the affair had offered “a little sunshine at sunset” for the prime minister, who was turning into more and more paranoid in regards to the safety providers and dealing with a really slender majority, financial difficulties and, it has been steered, the early phases of dementia.
Mr Haines wrote that he had been knowledgeable of the affair by Ms Hewlett-Davies, after catching her climbing the staircase to the prime minister’s room late one night in 1974, lengthy after the press workplace had ceased working.
During his time in Downing Street, Lord Wilson was beset by rumours that he was having an affair, however with his political secretary Marcia Williams, whom he ennobled as Baroness Falkender in 1974.
Lady Falkender sued the BBC over a 2006 drama alleging that she had an affair with the late PM and unduly influenced his honours record, receiving £75,000 in libel damages.
Those rumours have been at all times denied, and the secret of his affair with Ms Hewlett-Davies, some 22 years his junior, had managed to not leak out till now.
Lord Wilson’s spouse of 55 years, Mary, died in 2018 aged 102.
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