Editing Harold Holt (section)

==Personal life==
===Relationships===
[[File:Harold Zara Holt-1950.jpg|thumb|right|Harold and Zara Holt in the 1960s]]
While at university, Holt met [[Zara Bate|Zara Dickins]], the daughter of a Melbourne businessman; there was an "instant mutual attraction". They made plans to marry once Holt had graduated, but after a financial dispute chose to separate.<ref name="frame6"/> Zara went on a trip to Britain, where she was introduced to James Fell, a [[British Indian Army]] officer. She accompanied Fell to India, and then in early 1935 returned to Australia where Holt again proposed marriage. She declined his offer, and married Fell a short time later, going to live with him in [[Jabalpur]]. Holt had entered parliament by that time, and was soon being profiled as "the most eligible bachelor in parliament". He briefly dated Lola Thring, the daughter of his father's business partner, [[F. W. Thring]], but his widowed father Tom was also interested in her (to his son's "disgust"). Tom Holt married Lola in 1936, and their daughter Frances (Harold's half-sister) was born in 1940; Tom Holt died in 1945.<ref name=p7>Frame (2005), p. 7.</ref>

In 1937, Zara returned to Australia to give birth to her first child, Nicholas. She had two more children, twins Sam and Andrew, in 1939. Her marriage with Fell broke down a short time later, and in late 1940 she returned to Australia permanently and resumed a relationship with Holt. Their relationship did not become public for some time, in order to avoid Holt's being implicated in Zara's divorce proceedings.<ref name=p8>Frame (2005), p. 8.</ref> They eventually married on 8 October 1946, at Zara's parents' home on St Georges Road, [[Toorak, Victoria|Toorak]].<ref>Frame (2005), p. 33.</ref> They initially lived on nearby Washington Street, but in 1954 bought the St Georges Road house.<ref>Frame (2005), p. 34.</ref> Holt legally adopted Zara's three children, and as young men they changed their surname to his.<ref>Frame (2005), p. 55.</ref> According to biographer [[Tom Frame (bishop)|Tom Frame]], it was an "open secret" that Holt was the biological father of the twins, as they shared his physical appearance and had been conceived at a time when Zara was known to have been in Melbourne.<ref name=p8/>

Zara Holt was a successful businesswoman, owning a chain of dress shops, and out-earned her husband even as prime minister. It was her success that allowed the couple to purchase two holiday homes, one at [[Portsea, Victoria]], and the other at [[Bingil Bay, Queensland]].<ref>Frame (2005), pp. 114–115</ref> She nonetheless made sacrifices for her husband's political career, accompanying him on all but one of his overseas trips, which could last for weeks.{{Efn|The only time Holt travelled overseas without his wife was in August 1948, when he attended a meeting of the [[Empire Parliamentary Association]] in London. It was the first time he had been outside Australia.<ref>Frame (2005), p. 37.</ref>}}

After her husband's death, Zara remarried in 1969 to one of his Liberal Party colleagues, [[Jeff Bate]].<ref>Frame (2005), p. 304.</ref> She was widowed a second time in 1984, and died in 1989. In a 1988 interview with ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'', Zara stated that her husband Harold had carried on "dozens" of extramarital affairs.<ref>Frame (2005), p. 305.</ref> In his biography of Holt, Tom Frame wrote: "I have not included the names of women with whom Holt allegedly had a sexual relationship because I was unable to confirm or deny that most of these relationships took place […] by their very nature they were always illicit and Holt was very discreet."<ref>Frame (2005), p. xvii.</ref>

===Personality===
Holt was the first Australian Prime Minister born in the twentieth century. He was an enthusiastic sportsman and avid swimmer, in stark contrast to Menzies and the majority of his predecessors and colleagues. Like later successor [[Bob Hawke]], this resonated with positive effect within the electorate. His oratory skills were vastly superior to that of [[Arthur Calwell]], whom Holt resoundingly beat in 1966. Holt's rhetoric was, however, considered a match to that of new Labor leader [[Gough Whitlam]]. Whitlam himself later said of Holt:

{{Blockquote|(his) ability to establish relationships with men of different backgrounds, attitudes and interests was his essential decency. He was tolerant, humane and broadminded. His suavity of manner was no pose. It was the outward reflection of a truly civilised human being. He was in a very real sense a gentleman.<ref>https://www.sbs.com.au/news/harold-holt-the-australian-prime-minister-who-disappeared | SBS News, 'The Australian Prime Minister who disappeared' - Retrieved 20180314</ref><ref>https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/on-this-day-prime-minister-harold-holt-commences-his-692-days-as-leader-of-australia/ | Museum of Australian Democracy, 'On this day' - Retrieved 20180319</ref><ref>https://www.smh.com.au/news/books/holt-legacy-rescued-from-the-deep/2005/09/01/1125302674781.html | Sydney Morning Herald, 'Holt legacy rescued from the deep' - Retrieved 20180319</ref>|Gough Whitlam, Leader of the Opposition, March 1968}}

===Religious beliefs===
Holt has been described as an "apathetic agnostic". He was baptised [[Anglicanism|Anglican]], attended [[Methodism|Methodist]] schools, and married with [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] forms,{{clarify|date=July 2024}} but neither he nor his wife had any interest in religion.{{sfnp|Williams|2013|p=140}} His lack of religiosity apparently had little impact on his political prospects, and was not generally remarked upon.<ref>Williams (2013), p. 141.</ref> [[Alick Downer]] believed that Holt's thoughts "lay in this world not the next".<ref>Williams (2013), p. 144.</ref> According to his friend [[Simon Warrender]], he "was an agnostic whose ''raison d'être'' was dedication to his career".<ref name=p266>Frame (2005), p. 266.</ref> Holt had a reputation as something of a [[fatalism|fatalist]], and frequently quoted from [[Andrew Marvell]]'s ''[[carpe diem]]'' poem "[[To His Coy Mistress]]".<ref>Williams (2013), p. 143.</ref> He was also fond of [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s poem "[[If—]]", which Warrender said he used as a "guiding light in his political and private life".<ref name=p266/>