The wife of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has revealed details of life in the spotlight, including an embarrassing faux pas involving the Duke of York.
Sarah Brown’s memoir describes how she responded to Andrew’s interest in the historic objects held at Chequers by showing him the wax death mask of Oliver Cromwell.
In an extract printed in the Daily Mail, she wrote: “There is a collective gasp, and I suddenly realise that this might not have been the most diplomatically sensitive gesture – showing the face of the signatory of King Charles I’s death warrant to a member of the Royal Family. Stumbling apologies.”
Mrs Brown describes how at her first Downing Street meeting as the wife of the Prime Minister, she was told she would not be given the same level of police protection as predecessor Tony Blair’s spouse.
“The Home Office recognise that I am not as high-profile as Cherie.
“Frankly, I think they also see an opportunity to clip a bit off their budget,” she wrote.
Although her family are given a driver so they can “get away if some incident arises”, Mrs Brown kept her Oyster card so she could use the Tube and buses.
She also tells of a barbecue at Balmoral Castle when the Queen drove her and her husband in a Range Rover.
“Having seen the film The Queen, there are elements of the scenes with the former Prime Minister that seem very accurate,” she added.
Mrs Brown lived in Downing Street for nearly a decade after marrying the then Labour chancellor in 2000, and the couple brought up their two young sons John and Fraser there.
She eschewed her life in public relations to become a full-time charity campaigner and is now president of the charity PiggyBankKids and patron of Women’s Aid and Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres, among others.
Referring to her husband, Mrs Brown said she wished she had “spoken up more” for him as he battled to hold on to power. “When things were going wrong, and I was reading stories about him that simply were not true, I wonder whether I should have got more involved – to say: ‘This is just not the case’.
Mrs Brown, who said she was inspired to hail her husband as a “hero” at the Labour Party Conference after watching Hillary Clinton praise Barack Obama in a speech, told the newspaper he was “misunderstood” and misrepresented.
She said: “It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Yet when you are in that moment, you think you have no alternative but to take it. It is the most frustrating position to be in.”
The mother of two young boys admitted there were times when being the wife of the Prime Minister took its toll.