Pauline Prescott 'still cannot forgive' as she reveals her side of political marriage

Pauline Prescott said she still cannot forgive her husband for his two-year fling with Tracey Temple, but their relationship has finally recovered.

The affair shattered the image of what appeared to be one of the most enduring marriages in politics and led to calls for his resignation.

In her autobiography Mrs Prescott said the then Deputy Prime Minister broke the news in their bedroom at home in Hull, confessing "I've had an affair" and warning her it would be all over the newspapers the next day.

Mrs Prescott said her husband of 45 years "looked terrible" and "his skin was grey", while she felt "sick to her stomach" at his betrayal with a woman she considered her friend.

After his confession on April 27, 2006, newspapers famously published a picture of Mr Prescott lifting Ms Temple off her feet and into his arms at a Christmas party.

Mrs Prescott, 70, says she rarely went to the parties..

In her memoir – for which she has reportedly been paid 320,000 – she wrote that she would happily wrap little gifts for him.

"To see that picture of him and Tracey at one of those parties hurt me so deeply," she said.

On the night of his confession the MP told his wife they should both go to Dorneywood, then his country government residence, as "all hell was going to break loose".

In her book Mrs Prescott wrote how she then exploded in anger.

"I'm not going anywhere!" she said. "If you think I'm fleeing my home in the middle of the night, you don't know me very well, John Prescott. You go. I'm staying. I've done nothing wrong."

She then told him to "just go", after which he left the room and drove away from the house.

She reveals that afterwards a succession of Labour's leading lights telephoned – including Cherie Blair, Alistair Campbell and Harriet Harman – clearly "worried which way I was going to swing."