Former Labour PM Harold Wilson confessed to affair with aide during time in Downing Street
HAROLD Wilson, the former Labour prime minister, confessed to an affair with an aide during his time in Downing Street.
Joe Haines, his press secretary, said his own deputy, Janet Hewlett-Davies, was Wilson’s lover.
Throughout his life, Wilson endured speculation that he had an affair with his political secretary, Marcia Williams, later Baroness Falkender, who he was close to.
But Mr Haines told The Times that Hewlett-Davies — who was in her 30s and 22 years younger than the PM — was the real “love match”.
A secret that both she and Wilson took to the grave.
“She has given me a new lease of life,” Wilson told him about the affair, which took place during his second term in No10 from 1974 to 1976.
Ms Hewlett-Davies died in October last year, aged 85.
Wilson was born on March 11, 1916 in Yorkshire and died on May 24, 1995.
The son of an industrial chemist and a teacher, he attended Oxford, studying history, philosophy, politics, and economics, and at 24 married his sweetheart, Mary Baldwin, with whom he would have two sons.
During World War II Wilson was drafted into civil service in the war cabinet, then as head of statistics and economics at the Ministry of Fuel and Power.
In 1945, he was elected to the House of Commons for the Labour party.
In 1964, he was elected Prime Minister for the first time.
Wilson had two stints as PM from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1976.