CHRISTINE KEELER’s life propelled her to the centre of the most famous British scandal of the 20th century – and helped bring down the government of her time.
Christine, who was at the heart of the Profumo affair, died aged 75 – however, a story is set to be retold tonight in a new BBC drama entitled The Trial of Christine Keeler.
Christine Keeler was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex, in 1942 and raised in Berkshire by her mum and step-dad.
She claimed in a later memoir she was sexually abused by her step-father, who she said beat her mother and drowned her puppies.
She also said she aborted her own child with a knitting needle after falling pregnant to a US airman aged 17.
Still only a teenager, Christine was a topless cabaret dancer in London’s Soho when she met society man-about-town Stephen Ward.
He introduced her to a whirlwind party scene involving what were described as orgies attended by aristocrats and VIPs.
It was through Ward that she met both Cabinet minister John Profumo and Soviet spy Yevgeny Ivanov in 1961. She had affairs with them both.
When the love triangle came to light two years later, fears of a Cold War security leak sparked a lurid scandal that rocked the government and had the public transfixed for months.
It made Christine Keeler one of the most famous women in the world in 1963.
John Profumo, then 46, was Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan’s government when he met 19-year-old Christine.
His first sight of her was when she climbed naked out of the swimming pool during at a party at Lord Astor’s country house Cliveden.
They began an affair that lasted from a few weeks to several months, according to various accounts.
At the same time, Christine was sleeping with diplomat Yevgeny Ivanov, an intelligence officer and the Soviet Union’s naval attache in London.
Some accounts claim MI5 hoped to use Keeler as a “honey trap” to persuade Ivanov to defect, and were alarmed when they found out she was also seeing Profumo.
They warned the minister off being associated with Ward’s seedy circle, and he ended the affair.
It remained hidden from the public until 1963 when her disintegrating love life thrust her into the spotlight.
A jealous boyfriend, Lucky Gordon, fired bullets at Ward’s front door as she hid inside, and the subsequent Old Bailey trial caused rumours to swirl in Westminster.
Profumo lied to the House of Commons, denying any impropriety with Keeler, but was later forced to quit in disgrace, followed months later by the prime minister.
Ward was put on trial for living off immoral earnings – accused of pimping Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies and other girls. He killed himself on the eve of the guilty verdicts.
Keeler, who always denied she was a prostitute, was jailed for nine months for perjuring herself during Gordon’s shooting trial.
At the height of the scandal, Christine Keeler sold her story to newspapers around the world and was the subject of a proposed film, the Keeler Affair, which was never released in the UK.
To promote it, she agreed to pose naked for photographer Lewis Morley in a studio in Peter Cook’s Establishment Club.
Her modesty was covered by the curved back of a bent plywood chair – a copy of the iconic Model 3107 by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen.
Sales of the Jacobsen chairs surged off the back of the photo, which was reproduced around the world, and many retailers rushed out knock-off designs to cash in on its popularity.
David Frost and Dame Edna Everidge are among the famous people who have been photographed sitting astride the same chair, which is now an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Christine had two brief marriages and two children but mostly lived alone after the scandal.
Before her death at the age of 75 she was reported to be living in sheltered housing in South London.
She claimed most of the money she made from newspaper stories was spent on lawyers in the 1970s.
Christine wrote a number of books about her role in the scandal.
In an interview to publicise her most recent memoir in 2012, she said she was estranged from her two children.
She 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.”
She was played by Joanne Whalley in Scandal, the 1989 film about the Profumo Affair.
On December 6, it was announced that Keeler had died the previous night after battling against the lung disease COPD for several months.
Her son, Seymour Platt, told The Guardian: “My mother passed away last night at about 11.30pm.”
Platt said she was at the Princess Royal university hospital in Farnborough at the time of her death.
The Trial of Christine Keeler will premiere on BBC One tonight at 9pm.
If you happen to miss the show, you can watch it on BBC iPlayer after it has aired on the box.
Part two will air tomorrow night (Monday, December 30) on BBC One at 9pm, with the third episode set for the same time and channel on Sunday (January 5).
The show, written by Apple Tree Yard screenwriter Amanda Coe, will run for six episodes.
Here is the cast:
