Original at
The Daily Telegraph
Obituary: Valerie Hobson
Profumo's loyal wife dies at 81
By Ben Fenton
The Daily Telegraph, 14 November 1998
VALERIE HOBSON, the British film star who stood by her disgraced husband
John Profumo in the Sixties political scandal, died yesterday at the age
of 81.
When Mr Profumo resigned as Secretary of State for War in 1963 after admitting
that he had lied to Parliament over his affair with the prostitute Christine
Keeler, Miss Hobson never flinched in her support. Friends said yesterday
that Mr Profumo might have made his false statement to the House to avoid
losing the love of this remarkable woman.
Lord Denning, in his report on the affair, said that when Mr Profumo confessed
to her over a quiet dinner what he had done, she said: "Oh, darling, we
must go home now as soon as we can and face up to it." This they did, quietly
rebuilding their lives.
Miss Hobson, who kept her maiden name after her husband's humiliation, went
on to work for charities supporting mentally handcapped children and leprosy
relief workers abroad.
She was born in Larne, Northern Ireland, in 1917, the daughter of a Royal
Navy captain, and went on to the stage at an early age. Her best-known film
roles were opposite Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets and as Estella
in David Lean's film of Great Expectations. She also appeared with Laurence
Olivier and Ralph Richardson.
[and with Conrad Veidt in The Spy in Black (1939) and Contraband (1940)]
Mr Profumo, her second husband, survives her.
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