Blairs' fourth child conceived during stay with Queen

Published on Monday 12 May 2008 22:11

THE fourth child of Tony and Cherie Blair was conceived while they were guests of the Queen at Balmoral, Mrs Blair has revealed in her memoirs, which have added to Gordon Brown's woes.

She said Leo was conceived in September 1999 because the couple were trying to stay warm in the cold Scottish weather and she had failed to pack her "contraceptive equipment" out of embarrassment.

On the couple's first visit to Balmoral the previous year, Mrs Blair had been embarrassed to find that household staff had unpacked every item of her "distinctly ancient toilet bag" as a courtesy.

Her autobiography, which is being serialised in a newspaper, tells how shocked she was to get pregnant at the age of 44. She initially believed she was going through the menopause.

Her book, Speaking For Myself, is being published on Thursday – much earlier than first thought. Mrs Blair has been accused of adding to the current difficulties being faced by the Prime Minister, as a result of earlier revelations in the book. Mrs Blair also reveals her husband quickly went public with the news she lost a baby in 2002 to prevent a false panic that their delayed holiday was due to an imminent invasion of Iraq.

Mrs Blair phoned her husband to say a scan had found the baby was dead. He and Alastair Campbell, his press secretary, decided to tell the press.

"I couldn't believe it. There I was bleeding, and they were talking about what was going to be the line to the press.

"I put down the receiver and lay there staring at the ceiling as the pain began to grip," she writes.