Overview

• Journalist Tina Gaudoin’s book The Incidental Feminist alleges Margaret Thatcher had two extramarital relationships, one early in her parliamentary career and a later possible involvement with Sir Humphrey Atkins.
• Atkins’ children called the claim “complete nonsense” and said they were not approached by the author, marking the first detailed family response reported in coverage.
• Gaudoin’s assertions draw on interviews and unnamed sources, including former Conservative minister Jonathan Aitken, who recalled “knowledgeable rumours” rather than first-hand evidence.
• Lord Charles Moore, Thatcher’s authorised biographer, said he has seen no evidence for an Atkins affair and described separate suggestions about PR chief Tim Bell as “vanishingly unlikely.”
• The book, trailed at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and reported by The Times, also recounts claims of an “extracurricular friendship” with Bell and explores Denis Thatcher’s close relationship with Mandy Rice-Davies.