Anne TootillMen and Politics
May 12th 2008 00:45
Cherie Blair has written her autobiography "Speaking for Myself" which has been serialised in The Times. She says she was astonished by the ruthless manner in which her husband Tony made it public within hours of it happening. Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell his communications chief insisted on informing the media immediately in 2002.
In an emotional account of losing her baby at the age of 47, she writes of her disbelief that her husband and Mr Campbell telephoned to discuss the announcement as she lay in pain and still bleeding.
They did so in order that a delay in their holiday did not trigger false speculation of an early invasion of Iraq.
The former Prime Minister's wife also reveals that she and her husband conceived their fourth child, Leo, while guests of the Queen at Balmoral.
Her remarks may cause some embarrassment within the Royal household because Mrs Blair says that her decision not to pack her contraceptive equipment for the annual prime ministerial visit to Balmoral in 1999 was because the previous year all her belongings, including her toilet bag, had been unpacked.
The Blairs were guests at Balmoral on the weekend of September 4-5, 1999, and Leo was born on May 20, 2000.
Mrs Blair writes about how she suspected that she might be pregnant in autumn 1999. "A few weeks before, we had been on the usual prime ministerial weekend to Balmoral. The first year we had actually stayed - in 1998 - I had been extremely disconcerted to discover that everything of mine had been unpacked.
"Not only my clothes, but the entire contents of my distinctly ancient toilet bag with its range of unmentionables.
"This year I had been a little more circumspect, and had not packed my contraceptive equipment out of sheer embarrassment. As usual up there, it had been bitterly cold, and what with one thing and another ... But then, I thought, I can't be. I'm too old. It must be the menopause."
Mr Blair's first reaction on being told that she was pregnant was, "Oh my God", and the next appeared to be, "We'll have to tell Alastair", she writes. Mr Campbell was communications chief at the time.
Mrs Blair told her close family and Mr Blair told Anji Hunter, his long-time aide, and Mr Brown.
She asked what possible business it could be of his. He replied: "You have to understand Cherie. It's a very sensitive topic for him. The whole issue of my being a family man is very sensitive to him." He said that he was only thinking of Mr Brown's feelings.
In 2002 Mrs Blair became pregnant again. "Needless to say, I was astonished. Leo's birth has seemed like a miracle and here I was nearly three years older. Although the idea was daunting to say the least I realised it would be nice for Leo not to be what amounted to an only child." (Euan, Nicky and Kathryn are much older.)
Mr Blair's reaction was recorded as, "I'm not sure I want to be a father at 50." Only the children and Leo's nanny were told. "Unusually for me, I wasn't feeling at all well. It was going to be a hard pregnancy, I realised, and I was feeling grim most of the time."
But her radiographer had been in raptures. "I have never seen a baby in a mother of your age that wasn't conceived by IVF," she said.
A few weeks later Mrs Blair went for the next scan. "It was the same radiographer as before and she was really excited, going on about how rare it was for someone my age to have a naturally conceived baby." But the radiographer was just moving the sensor across Mrs Blair's stomach when she stopped. "There's no heartbeat, Mrs Blair. I'm afraid the baby's dead."
She reveals that the press announcement was made for political reasons.
The Blairs had been planning to go on holiday to France. Mrs Blair told her husband on the telephone what had happened. He broke the news to his mother-in-law and children and then told Mr Campbell.
Shortly afterwards the phone rang again and it was both Mr Blair and Mr Campbell on the line. There were problems about not going on holiday, they told her. There had been talk of troops being sent into Iraq and if the Blairs did not go on holiday it might send out the wrong signals that something was about to happen. Therefore, the best thing was to tell the press that she had had a miscarriage.
Mrs Blair writes: "I couldn't believe it. There I was, bleeding, and they were talking about what was going to be the line to the press. I put down the receiver and lay there staring at the ceiling as pain began to grip."
She says she was overwhelmed by loss. "I still have the scan," she writes.
What an interesting insight into men and politics. I think Cherie Blair is a remarkable woman and I'm going out today to buy her book.
For any woman reading this who has had a miscarriage you will appreciate her sentiments, there are no words to describe the sorrow. It seems that Tony let her down badly at this sad time in her life, I wonder how it affected their relationship.
I think I would have killed him.
| 44 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
