Wife tells of 'grey' Prescott's affair confession
John Prescott’s wife told today of the dramatic moment she found out her husband had had an affair.
Pauline Prescott said the then deputy prime minister sat her down in their bedroom and confessed: “I’ve had an affair,” warning her it would be all over the newspapers the next day.
In her autobiography – serialised in the Mail on Sunday – Mrs Prescott said her husband “looked terrible” and “his skin was grey” after the revelation, while she felt “sick to her stomach”.
Labour Party stalwart Mr Prescott revealed he had had a two-year affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple, who was 24 years his junior, but that it had finished a while ago.
After his confession on April 27, 2006, newspapers famously published a picture of the Cabinet member lifting Ms Temple off her feet and into his arms.
That night the MP told his wife of 45 years they should both leave for Dorneywood, the government residence he used at the time, as “all hell was going to break loose”.
In her book Mrs Prescott, 70, wrote how she then exploded in anger at his betrayal.
“I’m not going anywhere!” she said. “If you think I’m fleeing my home in the middle of the night, you don’t know me very well, John Prescott. You go. I’m staying. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
She then told him to “just go”, after which he left the room and drove off from the house.
Mrs Prescott – who has reportedly been paid £320,000 (€365,000) for her memoir - eventually took her husband back but said she had not forgiven him.
She said: “People have asked if I have forgiven him and the answer is that I haven’t, because to forgive is to condone.
“I have accepted that the affair happened but I’ve made the decision not to throw all of our lives in turmoil over what he did. I’ve moved on.”
She added: “I didn’t want revenge or, worse, to find myself acting out of spite. Rightly or wrongly, I felt John deserved a second chance.”
Mr Prescott, 71, who has represented his constituency of Hull for 40 years, left his Cabinet post in 2007.
