'Norma ended the affair'

John Major was 'attentive to women', friend claims

John Major was given an ultimatum by his wife to drop Edwina Currie or lose his family, a friend has reportedly claimed.

The Majors' marriage came close to collapse when Norma Major learned of her husband's four year liaison with the former health minister, the friend is alleged to have told the Evening Standard.

It puts grey, boring old Major, his shirt tucked into his underpants, in a new light

Sir Bernard Ingham

At first Mrs Major turned to relatives and friends for support, but then she told her husband to end the affair or risk losing her and their children.

The friend reportedly told the newspaper: "People do not realise that Norma is very strong-willed, tough-minded woman and she gave John a firm ultimatum.

Forgive and forget?

"She said if he did not end the affair instantly and for good she would leave him.

"Had she done so, his political career would have been destroyed or, at very least, knocked back by several years.

"Certainly, he would not have succeeded in becoming prime minister if his marriage had collapsed at that moment and he knew it."

At the weekend, Mr Major said his wife had long known of the relationship and had forgiven him.

Distraught wife

The unnamed family friend commented: "I knew he had had an affair but not the name of the other woman. I'm not surprised it was Edwina Currie.

"John was always very attentive to women and they seemed to find him attractive, more so when he became more senior in the party.

"Norma was distraught and it was clear that the marriage was in a lot of trouble. For several months it seemed that it could go the other way.

"She had various friends and relations who helped her through it but it was typical of her that she eventually took the matter into her own hands and laid down the terms by which she would stay with him.

"People think of Norma as a very shy woman, but she has iron willpower and once she made a decision, she stuck to it.

"That is probably why, although she must have been very hurt, their marriage was able to recover over the following years."

'Filthy lucre'

Sir Bernard Ingham, former press secretary to Margaret Thatcher, accused Mrs Currie of acting out of revenge and to make money.

"You could have knocked me down with a chicken feather when I found out that John Major's affair with Edwina Currie was front-page news.

"It puts grey, boring old Major, his shirt tucked into his underpants, in a new light."

Edwina Currie has divorced and remarried since the affair

He told the Sunday Post: "Many in their party will now say it's a pity Edwina has not maintained her 1980s discretion. They will reasonably wonder why, 14 years after the end of the affair, she has chosen, having kissed, to tell us all about it.

"They will conclude it is either for filthy lucre, since the revelation comes in the serialisation of her diaries, or revenge for not being brought back into government by her lover when he became prime minister in 1990."

'Cheap trollop'

Former Tory MP David Mellor, who had to step down as Heritage Secretary over a sex scandal, had a more simple explanation for Mrs Currie's behaviour.

He wrote in the Evening Standard: "So basically she sold John Major down the river for cash, like a cheap trollop.

"As someone who has been there, I can only shudder at the torment of the damned he must have gone through every time someone else's private life was in the headlines."

Former Tory MP, Michael Brown, who resigned after an affair was made public, told BBC News: "Never did any of us imagine that the biggest adulterer of all in the Conservative party was the prime minister."

Another ex-Conservative MP Piers Merchant, whose own extra-marital affair was exposed by the tabloids, told BBC News: "I find it amazing that John Major himself had been in a rather similar situation to all of those other people that were exposed and yet he was the architect of the very policy that turned the spotlight on MP's private lives."

No hints

Terry Major-Ball said the disclosures should put paid to his brother John's "grey" image.

"I don't know what all the fuss is about with these revelations," he told The Times.

"They are old news, done and dusted. I have known about it for years. But perhaps it will show people he is not so grey after all."

But Baroness Thatcher was ignorant of the affair.

Her aide said on Monday: "She was as surprised as everyone else to read about the relationship. She does not recall anyone mentioning even a hint of it at the time."