PAYING TRIBUTE TO his late mother Christine Keeler just days after her death, Seymour Platt has said she was “blamed and victimised” at the hands of men all her life.
Former model Christine Keeler passed away aged 75 on Tuesday.
She became famous for an affair she had with Tory cabinet minister John Profumo which forced him to resign in 1963.
However, Keeler was rumoured to be having an affair with a Soviet diplomat at the same time, raising fears of an intelligence leak as it was the height of the cold war.
Profumo initially denied the affair in the House of Commons saying there was no “impropriety” in their relationship. He later admitted to lying to the house and resigned.
The scandal also made Keeler famous. A naked photo of Keeler straddling the back of a chair is among the most famous U.K. images of the 1960s. She spent the rest of her life trying to escape her unwanted notoriety.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy, Platt said that his mother had been bullied throughout her life over her sex life.
“I’ve read articles that will still call her a prostitute or a good time girl or a call girl. This is all language of the 1960s and we’re now in 2017,” Platt said.
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Platt spoke to Tubridy about the period Keeler had spent in prison, convicted of perjury after being stalked, and held captive and raped for two days. When the case went to trial, Keeler’s friend told her that she did not want her name mentioned and to inform the jury that she wasn’t in the house during the period of time Keeler was held.
“She did exactly what her friend asked. By doing that she perjured herself and she went to prison,” Platt said.
Christine was blamed and victimised for, basically, the urges of men.
Platt said that the attitude towards woman, the attitude that Keeler suffered for years, must begin to change.
“I have a little daughter who is growing up in a world that I hope doesn’t continue to treat women the way they had been treated for the last 50 years, the last millennia,” he said.
“The language we used around women must be much more respectful. We would never speak about men the way we speak about women.”
An extraordinary life
Platt reminisced about his childhood with Keeler, growing up just outside of London.
“I always remember she was really funny and she was a very, very devoted mother when I was growing up,” Platt said.
He told Tubridy that he did realise growing up that his life was different than other children’s – going from utmost wealth to poverty.
“The life was a little bit odd. I remember when I was very, very young my mother was very well off and she had a nice flat in Chelsea, but she lost all of that money from one thing or another and then we were very, very poor,” he said.
She was very, very feisty… my memory of her was standing up against bullies and there was definitely a shadow that it was a little bit different because every now and then you’d have people coming around to interview her.
[image alt="Christine Keeler death" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/12/christine-keeler-death-3-296x312.jpg" width="296" height="312" credit-source="PA%20Wire%2FPA%20Images" caption="Christine%20Keeler%20leaving%20her%20London%20flat%20in%20Devonshire%20Street%0A" class="alignnone" /end]
Platt said that he and his family had visited Keeler in London last week, and although they knew she was sick, “she was perky, she looked fantastic”.
However, it was on Monday that she became very sick, very quickly and unfortunately they didn’t make it back to London on time to be with her.
Speaking of the last few days he spent with his mother, Platt said: “It was a really wonderful, special experience.”
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