When he was 37, he was hailed in the Press as the ‘cleverest young man in England’ and even tipped by Time magazine as a future world leader. But Peter Jay’s career, though illustrious, never managed to evade the long shadow cast by his chaotic private life.
For while he became British ambassador to the US at just 40, and worked as a ‘bag man’ for convicted fraudster Robert Maxwell before becoming the BBC’s Economics Editor, he’ll probably be best remembered for having an affair with his children’s wide-eyed nanny.
Jay, who died on Sunday aged 87, would later claim his marriage to Margaret, daughter of former Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan, had been over in all but name when he started an affair with Jane Tustian, 14 years his junior, in 1979. Indeed, many believe it was revenge for Margaret’s own dalliance with Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein.
The shy daughter of an Oxfordshire farmer (and one of 14 children), Jane had accompanied the Jays to Washington DC to…