How 19-year-old Christine Keeler brought down government with lover John Profumo
At just 19-years-old Christine Keeler became embroiled in a scandal that would eventually bring down the British government.
A troubled teenage showgirl, Christine had embarked on an affair with government minister, John Profumo, 27 years her senior.
They had been introduced by osteopath, Stephen Ward, who Christine had met while working as a topless showgirl at Murray's Caberet Club in Soho.
Christine and Ward lived together, and while many assumed they were a couple, she always insisted they were nothing more than friends.
She was also sexually involved with Russian diplomat, Yevgeny Ivanov.
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Both affairs were short but when she started relationships with another two men, the significance of her previous lovers would cause a ripple that destroyed the government of the day.
Christine and her mother were abandoned by her father during World War Two.
Living in a make-shift home made from two converted railway carriages, Christine had a troubled childhood.
When she was a teenager she was sexually abused by her mother's lover and his friends, who she worked as a baby sitter for,
And when Christine was just nine she was sent to a holiday home by a school inspector because she was suffering from malnutrition.
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At 15 she started work as a model in a dress shop in Soho and by 17 had given birth to her son following an affair with a United States Air Force sargeant.
Her baby boy died just six days after he was born.
Devastated, Christine started work as a waitress and met Maureen O'Connor, who also worked at Murray's.
Christine was a huge hit in the club and even her friends describe her as "the most beautiful woman I had ever seen".
Artist Catherine Coon, who backed Christine during her trial, added: "Every man who met her wanted her and those who couldn't have her wanted to punish her."
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Following her flings with Profumo and Ivanov, Christine began relationships with both jazz singer Aloysius 'Lucky' Gordon and jazz promoter Johnny Edgecombe.
The fact she was seeing both made each of the men insanely jealous and following one heated row, Edgecombe slashed Gordon's face with a knife.
And when Christine ended her romance with Edgecombe he arrived at Ward's home and fired five shots into the building.
He was arrested and at his trial blew apart the Profumo affair scandal.
Initially, Profumo denied he had been involved with Christine, but he was forced to confess and resign from the government.
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The fall-out was unprecedented and immense – the scandal exposed the extreme hypocrisy at the heart of government.
It would eventually lead to the resignation of Harold Macmillan's Conservative government.
When he first saw Christine swimming naked in the pool at Lord Astor's house in 1961, John Profumo was the UK's Minister for War.
It was a time when the Cold War was at its most dangerous and just before the Cuban missle crisis.
When MI5 found out about Profumo's affair with Christine, who was also sleeping with Ivanov, a naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy in London it was a clear conflict of interests.
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There were fears Britain's nuclear secrets could be stolen by the Russians.
But it was almost two years later that the political ramifications of what happened began to be felt when Profumo lied to the House about his relationship with Christine.
Just over two months later he had to confess and in the election the following year, the Labour party secured an emphatic win.
Christine herself was jailed for nine months for perjury and never recovered from her ordeal.
She said: "I have not lived with a man since 1978. I find it impossible. They did not want to be involved with me in a romantic relationship.
"As a sexual scalp, I was a trophy to be boasted to the boys about, but not to take home to mummy."
Christine Keeler died in 2017, aged 75.
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