Antonia de Sancha (born 14 September 1961 in
Hammersmith,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
) is an
English
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* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
actress and businesswoman best known as the former mistress of British
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
and
Cabinet minister David Mellor
David John Mellor (born 12 March 1949) is a British broadcaster, barrister, and former politician. As a member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John Major as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1990–92) and ...
which became public knowledge in 1992.
She is the daughter of a Spanish film producer father, who died in the mid-1980s,
[Neil Tweedle & Tom Rowle]
"Whatever happened to Antonia de Sancha - the kiss-and-tell lover who brought down David Mellor?"
telegraph.co.uk 1 February 2013. The ''Telegraph'' piece says 1985, the ''Irish Independent 1984. and a Swedish mother who, suffering from severe
clinical depression
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...
, died by suicide 18 months later, shortly before her daughter began studies at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...
.
At the time of revelation of her affair, de Sancha was described by some news outlets as a "soft-porn actress" because she had played the part of a prostitute in a film in which she had simulated sex.
The affair with Mellor was a contributory factor in his subsequent resignation from the cabinet on 24 September 1992.
Believing her acting career was ruined and aware that newspapers were making money out of the story while she was not, de Sancha hired publicist
Max Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford (6 April 1943 – 10 December 2017) was an English publicist who was particularly associated with promoting " kiss and tell" stories in tabloid newspapers.
In December 2012, as part of Operation Yewtree, Clifford was arr ...
to sell her story to various newspapers. She made about £30,000 from those sales.
The furore that followed publication left her deeply unhappy. "It was emotional rape", de Sancha told an interviewer 10 years after the scandal referring to the bugging of her flat which led to the affair being made public. She had scarcely any work as an actress since the scandal, and considered the scandal as the reason a subsequent marriage failed.
She was the subject of an instalment of the
Discovery Channel documentary series ''
The Mistress'' in 2002.
De Sancha now runs an Indian textiles importing business in
Portobello Road
Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is ...
,
, West London.
See also
*
Back to Basics (campaign)
Back to Basics was a political campaign announced by British Prime Minister John Major at the Conservative Party conference of 1993 in Blackpool.
Though it was intended as a nostalgic appeal to traditional values such as "neighbourliness, dec ...
References
External links
*
1961 births
Living people
English film actresses
Alumni of RADA
Actresses from Hammersmith
Businesspeople from Hammersmith
English people of Swedish descent
English people of Spanish descent
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