Editing Christine Keeler (section)

=== Profumo affair ===
{{Main|Profumo affair}}
On the weekend of 8–9 July 1961, Ward introduced Keeler to [[John Profumo]], the [[Secretary of State for War]], at a pool party at [[Cliveden]], the [[Buckinghamshire]] mansion owned by the [[William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor|3rd Viscount Astor]]. Profumo began a brief affair with Keeler, the exact length of which is disputed. It either ended in August 1961, after the security services warned Profumo of the possible dangers of mixing with the Ward circle, or it continued with decreasing fervour until December 1961.{{Sfn|Irving|Hall|Wallington|1963|pp=49–53}} Among Ward's other friends, whom Profumo briefly met, was the Soviet naval attaché and [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]] officer, [[Yevgeny Ivanov (spy)|Yevgeny Ivanov]]. According to Keeler, she and Ivanov had a short sexual relationship.{{Sfn|Knightley|Kennedy|1987|pp=66–70, 86–87}}

After her relationship with Profumo ended, Keeler was sexually involved with several partners, including Jamaican jazz singer [[Lucky Gordon]] and Antiguan jazz promoter [[Johnny Edgecombe]]. There was considerable jealousy between the two men; in one quarrel on 27 October 1962, Edgecombe slashed Gordon's face with a knife.{{Sfn|Davenport-Hines|2013|pp=252–53, 258}} When Keeler ended the relationship with Edgecombe in December 1962, Edgecombe turned up at Ward's house in [[Wimpole Mews]] on 14 December, where she was temporarily seeking refuge, and fired five shots at the building.{{Sfn|Irving|Hall|Wallington|1963|p=75}} His arrest and subsequent trial brought Keeler to public attention and provided the impetus for a national scandal to develop.{{Sfn|Young|1963|pp=9–11}} After initially denying any impropriety with Keeler, Profumo eventually confessed and resigned from the government and Parliament, causing great embarrassment to his government colleagues, who had previously supported him. These events, in the summer of 1963, brought Keeler notoriety; ''[[The Economist]]'' gave the headline "The Prime Minister's Crisis" alongside a picture of Keeler, with no further explanation.{{Sfn|Young|1963|pp=18, 24-25, 36}}