TONY and Cherie Blair today celebrate the milestone many thought they might never make: a decade in 10 Downing Street. Few other British couples have had their marriage subjected to such public scrutiny and emerged after ten years with their relationship unscathed.
The Blairs' partnership has evolved to cope with the pressures of living in what Mrs Blair calls the "goldfish bowl" of Downing Street. It has held firm through the birth of their fourth child, Leo, in 2000, when Mrs Blair was 45; the public humiliat
ion of son Euan after teenage experimentation with alcohol; a string of gaffes; and a long-running guerrilla war with their next-door neighbour, Gordon Brown.
But some things between the Blairs have remained constant, most obviously their embraces and the hand-holding at formal occasions that made them so different from previous occupants of No 10.
Yet, as they raise a glass today to toast their highlights, both political and personal, there will doubtless be other moments from the past ten years they may also care to forget - not least the embarrassing spectacle on the doorstep of their former family home the day after the landslide victory of 1997 that long-defined Mrs Blair's relationship with the media.
Still sporting bed-head, her modesty barely covered by an unflattering nightie, she was snapped opening her front door to receive a bouquet of flowers craftily sent by a tabloid newspaper. The irony of being caught out in this way cannot have been lost on Mrs Blair as, famously, her husband never sends her flowers.
The humiliation also inspired Mrs Blair's devotion to her so-called "lifestyle guru" Carole Caplin, whose influence was such that she even persuaded Mrs Blair to be pictured in glossy magazine Marie Claire, having her lipgloss applied as she sat on the marital bed.
It is sometimes difficult to remember how popular the Blairs once were. They arrived in Downing Street on a tidal wave of public goodwill, a refreshing antidote to the sleaze-ridden Tory dog days. Filled with sheer excitement, Mrs Blair threw her arms around her husband outside No 10 after the election victory, smiling broadly.
Lauren Booth, Cherie Blair's half-sister and a political writer, said this week that in 1997 "the Blairs were honest, loyal, socially responsible people. What a difference a decade makes. Today, [they] are vastly different from that amazed couple who crossed the No 10 threshold. Over the years I have watched them change and harden."
The couple met as young lawyers in the chambers of Derry Irvine, Blair's political mentor who became his first Lord Chancellor in government. She was a loud Liverpool lass: clever and politically sharp.
Mrs Blair remained the senior partner during the early part of their marriage, financially, at least.
It was her money, earned from a high-flying legal career, that paid for their Islington house, the holidays to France and a succession of nannies. In the end, however, it was Mrs Blair who constrained her political ambitions, instead living them through her husband.
One Labour Party affiliate yesterday told The Scotsman: "It must be difficult for a strong, successful woman like Cherie to pass on her opinions to her husband but be ignored on most occasions. They come from different ends of the Labour spectrum and quite often clash on the big issues. Tony told her to shut up after at last year's Labour conference, after the incident where she called Brown a liar."
As it has become more difficult for Mrs Blair to continue with her legal work, she has taken up lecture tours as a "leading human rights lawyer". But also as the "wife of the British Prime Minister".
This has led to complaints she has put Mr Blair in breach of the ministerial code by taking material advantage of his position to benefit the family financially.
Chris Grayling, a Conservative MP who has repeatedly challenged Mrs Blair on her lucrative lecture tours, believes the issue has caused tension in the marriage.
"There have been persistent rumours of unhappiness at No 10 about some of her lecture tours," he told The Scotsman. "My sense was that they could never quite bring themselves to admit that [making money from lecture tours] was wrong. Whether that has worked itself out is unclear. There were rumours Tony Blair was unhappy about it, but felt he could not intervene."
Mrs Blair has also been depicted as a keen recipient of freebies and once happily helped herself to 62 items in a Melbourne store after being invited to "take a few", although she later paid for them all.
As Mr Blair struggled with growing public anger over the war in Iraq, Mrs Blair suffered her nadir when she entrusted Ms Caplin's boyfriend to negotiate a discounted purchase of two flats in Bristol.
The brush with Peter Foster, an Australian conman, became known as "Cheriegate" and forced Mrs Blair to make a public apology, saying: "I'm not superwoman."
The full article contains 834 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
