Stonehouse: Trailer starring Matthew Macfadyen

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ITV drama Stonehouse continues this evening (January 3) with the final instalment of the three-parter hitting screens tomorrow (January 4). Stonehouse tells the outrageous true story of high-flying Labour MP John Stonehouse (played by Matthew Macfadyen), who planned to start a new life after seemingly drowning off a beach in Miami back in 1974. However, his plans to leave behind his wife Barbara Joan Stonehouse (Keeley Hawes) and children for his mistress Shiela Buckley (Emer Heatley) didn’t quite pan out.

What happened to John Stonehouse’s wife?

Barbara Joan Stonehouse

Barbara and John got married in 1948 when he was just 23 and had three children together: Jane, Julia and Matthew with the couple married for 30 years.

The disgraced politician was foiled after the police caught him in 1974, believing he was missing aristocrat Lord Lucan.

The discovery left his wife Barbara devastated after learning of his betrayal.

She only found out John had been having an affair after he went missing and she was contacted by a newspaper reporter asking about a rented flat in Westminster.

The reporter mentioned a number of names including Sheila, whom Barbara and the family had known well because she was John’s secretary.

Barbara and Sheila met with the younger woman confessing she’d been seeing John and admitting she was pregnant with his child.

Barbara was left deeply upset by the admission but also told Sheila how John had had many affairs in the past.

During this meeting, Sheila knew John was alive after having spent the weekend with him.

After John’s ruse was discovered, he asked both Shiela and Barbara to come to Australia ad bring his children.

Barbara went Down Under on the understanding Sheila wasn’t there, however, she was left dismayed when she found the other woman with him.

According to the book Stonehouse: Cabinet Minister, Fraudster and Spy by John’s great nephew Julian Hayes, neither Sheila nor Barbara wanted to let go of the MP despite his misdeeds.

His first wife remained married to him for several more years but Barbara and John parted ways in 1978 and he went on to marry Sheila in 1981.

Sheila Buckley

Shiela and John had been having an illicit affair for five years before his scuppered plans to fake his death.

Sheila, who was 21 years his junior, and John welcomed their son James William John in 1982.

John tragically died in 1988 at 62 after having a heart attack after suffering multiple heart attacks throughout his life.

Before her marriage to John, Sheila was married but the relationship broke down amid accusations of her spouse’s infidelity.

Sheila is now in her 80s and is said to leave a “sedate life” gardening and helping clients with their tax returns, The Daily Mail reported in 2021.

She now works as a chartered accountant and her son is said to visit her and does shopping for her.

Sheila has remained private and rarely speaks out about her late husband.

Retired Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector David Townley, who was featured in the documentary The Real Stonehouse, said: “I thought [Sheila] was polite – a kind, gentle person who’d been mesmerised by Stonehouse and dragged into something she shouldn’t have got involved in.”

Stonehouse airs on ITV1 tonight at 9pm and the entire series is streaming on ITVX now

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