It has been revealed that Harold Wilson had an extramarital affair during his second term as Prime Minister.
The Labor great, who held the position in Downing Street for eight years in the 1960s and 1970s, has long been the subject of rumors about his fidelity to his wife Mary.
The father-of-two always denied the speculation and even successfully sued over the suggestions on one occasion, with many believing that if he had done so it would have been with his political secretary Marcia Williams.
However, his oldest surviving adviser has today revealed that it was not Williams, who later became Baroness Falkender, with whom Wilson had his affair, but another lesser-known member of his office.
Joe Haines, who acted as the prime minister’s press secretary, claims that Wilson privately admitted to him that he had cheated on his wife with Janet Hewlett-Davies.
Harold Wilson photographed with his wife Mary at 10 Downing Street in 1967 during his second term as Prime Minister.
Wilson’s oldest surviving adviser has now claimed that he admitted having an affair with Janet Hewlett-Davies, who worked on his press team.
There were long rumors that Wilson was having an affair with his political advisor, Baroness Falkender, but this was always denied.
Hewlett-Davies, who was Haines’ deputy, admitted to her boss that she had an affair with Wilson before her resignation in 1976.
Breaking his silence after 50 years, Haines said The times on Wednesday: ‘The surprising thing is that no one else except me knew about Janet’s affair with Wilson, for which she also did not seek any kind of benefit.
“It was certainly a love match on her part, and the joy Wilson showed towards me suggested it was for him too.”
Haines, now 96, said the affair greatly boosted Wilson’s morale in the two years before he resigned as prime minister for health reasons in 1976.
“She was important to the last Wilson administration: she was Harold Wilson’s mistress,” Haines wrote.
“He died keeping a secret that was never leaked from Downing Street, Britain’s most notorious leaky building.”
Like Wilson, Hewlett-Davies was married at the time of their relationship and was 22 years his junior.
She died aged 85 last year, after a career in Whitehall communications and then working as Robert Maxwell’s head of public relations.
Harold Wilson photographed giving a speech at the Labor Party Conference in Brighton in October 1969.
Harold Wilson photographed with his political advisor, Baroness Falkender. The couple consistently denied rumors that they had an affair.
Harold Wilson photographed leaving Euston station on his return from Liverpool in 1966. Seen next to him is his political secretary, Baroness Falkender.
She is said to have confessed the affair to Mr Haines after he saw her walking up the stairs to the Prime Minister’s room at No 10 one afternoon in 1974, at the start of his second term in office and when she was his deputy press secretary.
That night I didn’t say anything to him, but the next morning I asked him what he was doing there. She told me that she was waiting for Wilson and then he told me why.
Later, on a visit to her constituency, Wilson also spoke “happily” to her press secretary about Hewlett-Davies, saying: “She has given me a new life.”
And in 1976, Wilson is said to have asked Mr. Haines to give him his usual room at the Checkers rural retreat.
‘I agreed. And what did she do? “She left her slippers under her bed,” she wrote.
The only other person said to have known about their affair at the time was Bernard Donoughue, now a Labor peer who was then head of the policy research unit.
He recalled last night that Wilson told him that his friendship with Hewlett-Davies “was making him happier than ever.”
However, claims of a romantic relationship have never been included in any of the memoirs written by leading figures in the Wilson administration nor in authorized or unofficial biographies.
By contrast, it has been alleged for decades that Wilson was having an affair with his “political wife” Marcia Williams, who became famous for writing her so-called Lavender List of resignation honors.
They both denied it even though Williams, later Baroness Falkender, was known to have once confronted his wife Mary and told her: “I slept with your husband six times in 1956 and it was not satisfactory.”
In fact, Lady Falkender went so far as to sue the BBC over a 2006 drama, claiming she had an affair with the late Prime Minister and improperly influenced his honors list, receiving £75,000 in damages for defamation.
In 1993, then-Prime Minister John Major nearly bankrupted the New Statesman by suing it for libel over allegations that she had had an affair with a Downing Street caterer.
Nine years later, he admitted to a four-year affair with fellow Conservative Edwina Currie that began when she was an MP and he was a government whip.