37 Facts About Edwina Currie

Edwina Currie is a British writer, broadcaster and former politician, serving as Conservative Party Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire from 1983 until 1997.

Edwina Currie was a Junior Health Minister for two years, resigning in 1988 during the salmonella-in-eggs controversy.

Edwina Currie is the author of six novels, and has written four works of non-fiction.

In September 2002, the publication of Edwina Currie's Diaries caused a sensation, as they revealed a four-year affair with colleague John Major between 1984 and 1988.

Edwina Currie remains an outspoken public figure, with a reputation for being "highly opinionated," and currently earns her living as an author and media personality.

Edwina Currie was born in south Liverpool to an Orthodox Jewish family, who "disowned her when she married a non-Jewish accountant".

Edwina Currie herself is not particularly religious, stating in a February 2000 interview that she found "religious mumbo jumbo hard to swallow in any faith".

Edwina Currie went to the Liverpool Institute High School for Girls in Blackburne House, in the Canning area of Liverpool, where she was Deputy Head Girl.

Edwina Currie studied philosophy, politics and economics at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she was taught by Gabriele Taylor.

Edwina Currie mingled repeatedly with the 800 or so patients, many teenage girls, some severely disturbed and medicated.

Edwina Currie was forced to resign as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health in December 1988, after she issued a warning about salmonella in British eggs.

Long after the furore died down, in 2001, it was revealed that a covered-up Whitehall report produced months after Edwina Currie's resignation found that there had been a "salmonella epidemic of considerable proportions".

In 1991, Edwina Currie became the first Conservative MP to appear on the BBC topical panel show Have I Got News for You.

Edwina Currie appeared again two years later, in a special episode commemorating the release of Margaret Thatcher's memoirs, opposite fellow Liverpudlian Derek Hatton.

In February 1994, Edwina Currie voted against the death penalty for murder, having previously voted and spoken in favour of it in July 1983; she had supported it in June 1988 and December 1990.

Edwina Currie was MP for South Derbyshire for 14 years; however, along with many other Conservative MPs, she lost her parliamentary seat in the 1997 general election.

Edwina Currie attempted to be selected as a Conservative candidate for the European Parliament election of 1999, but was unsuccessful.

Edwina Currie was challenging the incumbent, Ruth George of the Labour Party.

In October 2022, Edwina Currie described the prime minister, Liz Truss, as "charmless, graceless, brainless, and useless".

Edwina Currie has written six novels: A Parliamentary Affair, A Woman's Place, She's Leaving Home, The Ambassador, Chasing Men and This Honourable House.

Edwina Currie has appeared in the reality cooking show Hell's Kitchen with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in 2004, and Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes in 2006.

Edwina Currie won All Star Family Fortunes on 3 January 2009.

Edwina Currie appeared in Channel 4's Come Dine with Me in February 2009 where she finished third.

Edwina Currie made a second appearance on the show during Channel 4's "Alternative Election Night" coverage, with Rod Liddle, Brian Paddick and Derek Hatton as her competitors.

In September 2011, Edwina Currie took part in the ninth series of Strictly Come Dancing.

In November 2014, Edwina Currie took part in the fourteenth series of I'm a Celebrity.

On 1 July 1972, Edwina married accountant Ray Currie in Barnstaple, Devon.

On 24 May 2001, in Southwark, Edwina Currie married retired detective John Jones, whom she had met when he was a guest on her radio programme in 1999.

Edwina Currie's Diaries, published in 2002, caused a sensation, as they revealed a four-year affair with John Major between 1984 and 1988, while both were married to other people.

Edwina Currie apparently ceased the affair when it became dangerous and impractical owing to the presence of bodyguards who had to be avoided.

Edwina Currie said she had been in love with him for years after the end of the affair, and that he had been "the love of her life".

In September 2004, Edwina Currie took part in a sponsored cycle ride across Poland, near to the area where ancestors of hers lived, for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

In June 2005, in her role as a patron of the British Heart Foundation, Edwina Currie championed a campaign to raise awareness of the effect of heart disease on women.

Edwina Currie was quoted by the media championing the campaign against hospital superbugs.

In October 2011, Edwina Currie took part in EuroVoice, an event supported by the European Youth Parliament.

In November 2011, Edwina Currie accepted the position of President of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir.

In February 2013, Edwina Currie participated in an Oxford Union debate, saying she opposed feminism.