John Prescott made a heartfelt apology to his wife on TV for cheating on her with his former diary secretary.
The former deputy prime minister, who was a key figure in Tony Blair's New Labour cabinet, has passed away at the age of 86 following a battle with Alzheimer's. The Labour peer is survived by his 85-year-old wife, Lady Pauline Prescott, who he was married to for 63 years.
Though their marriage stood the test of time, it wasn't without its ups and downs. Between 2002 and 2004, John admitted having a affair with colleague Tracey Temple, a divorcee who was 24 years his junior. The two-year fling began at an office Christmas party following months of flirtation.
Appearing on Piers Morgan's Life Stories a few years later in 2011, Lady Prescott revealed in a clip: "I have not forgiven him and I don’t think I ever will, but I’m not bitter. I think once you become bitter you reach the point of no return. I accepted it."
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Hull Daily Mail)John become emotional as the clip was played and went on to publicly apologise to his wife, who sat in the studio audience. Calling the affair 'stupid', he told her: "‘I love you like I’ve never done before and I should have done before, a lot more, and been a lot more considerate, and that’s what I’d like to say to Pauline."
Pauline found out about the affair in 2006 when John came home unexpectedly and confessed. Describing the moment that changed her life forever, she recalled in the clip: "I said, 'What on earth are you doing home?' He said, 'Go upstairs'. I said, 'What’s all this about? You’re not going to divorce me, are you?' and he said, 'No, but I think you might be divorcing me when you hear what I’ve got to say.'
"And it was then that he broke the news. I was completely devastated. We talked it through and realised what we had, we didn’t want to lose. There was no deep affections there [with Tracey]. I don’t think I could have coped with that. It was just, as men would say, just a boy thing."
The ex-Hull East MP said he had "no excuse" for the affair and said: "People talk about mid-life crises but I think it's part of an opportunity that developed. I don’t want to cast aspersions on anybody involved in it, it was a stupid act. All I could say was sorry and my wife was prepared to say ‘Daft old bugger’.
"She’s not forgiven me, but we have a wonderful life from our family and that's the nature and quality of that woman that she can say that. There’s no excuse, it’s just an opportunity that presented in a limited way and that happened. As soon as the press rang me I didn’t deny it, I just said 'That’s it' and I had to go home and explain it." Host Piers Morgan said: "The heartfelt apology he [John] made to his tearful wife Pauline was one of the most moving moments I’ve ever witnessed as an interviewer."
Elsewhere in the interview, John opened up about his struggles with the eating disorder bulimia. Asked how many times a day he would be sick when it was at its worst, he told Piers: "Three, four times. My wife used to notice it and she would say to me: 'You've got to stop this.' And it doesn’t go away, you’ve got to learn to discipline yourself. My love is fish and chips and you’ve got to get round to saying: ‘You can’t have as many, keep it down to one a day’."
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