Prince Philip was mentioned in top-secret FBI memos alluding that he could be “involved” in the Profumo affair, adding a new dimension to the infamous 1960s British sex scandal. The Profumo affair rocked the British government when War Secretary John Profumo’s extramarital relationship with model Christine Keeler, who was also involved with a Russian military attaché, Yevgeny Ivanov, came to light. The scandal threatened to topple then-Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s administration.
Keeler’s introduction to Ivanov was facilitated by osteopath Stephen Ward, whose connections to the British Royal Family, including Prince Philip, had long been the subject of public speculation.
Now, newly unearthed documents reveal that an American associate of Ward implicated the late Duke of Edinburgh in the scandal. According to the FBI memo, Thomas Corbally informed FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that Prince Philip was linked to Keeler and fellow model Mandy Rice-Davies through Ward, a claim that carried significant weight during the Cold War.
In a cable between Hoover and the US embassy in London on June 20, 1963 Corbally’s allegations were documented: “Corbally also stated there was a rumour Prince Philip may have been involved with these two girls,” per Daily Mail.
The Netflix series The Crown dramatised Prince Philip’s potential involvement in the Profumo affair. The show depicted Soviet spy Anthony Blunt attempting to blackmail Prince Philip with the alleged “involvement” to prevent exposure of his espionage. It also suggested that a “mystery man” photographed at one of Ward’s parties could have been Philip.
Although Ward and Prince Philip were known to have attended the same parties, and Ward had even sketched portraits of Philip at Buckingham Palace. Corbally himself expressed doubt about the charges against Ward, telling the FBI he did not believe the accusations.
Despite Ward’s central role in the scandal, neither British nor American intelligence could confirm that Ivanov had engaged in espionage.
Profumo’s lies to Parliament were infamous, but Lord Denning’s investigation concluded that there had been no security breaches related to the Profumo affair. Denning’s report placed most of the blame on Ward, describing him as an “utterly immoral” man whose activities were “misconceived and misdirected.”
ALSO READ| ‘It’s a good drama’: Did Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip cheat on her
Ward later was accused of immorality as although the friend, Keeler was not a prostitute, she had lived off men in that she was accepting money from rich men.
