London, Oct 12: David Cameron's grandfather abandoned his wife for an aristocratic mistress, the British prime minister said in a speech.
Donald Cameron, the prime minister's paternal grandfather, left his family for Marielen von Meiss-Teuffen, a young divorcee working as a BBC announcer, the Telegraph reported.
David Cameron referred to the scandal in a speech to the Conservative Party conference as he spoke of his father's background.
Saying his father Ian told him his greatest source of pride during a walk, Cameron said: “It was simple - working hard from the moment he left school and providing a good start in life for his family.”
”Not just for all of us, but helping his mum, too, when his father ran off. Not a hard luck story, but a hard work story,” the prime minister said.
Donald Cameron married his wife Enid in 1930.
It was Enid who introduced her husband to von Meiss-Teuffen, who was born in Attersee, Austria, and had lived in Paris before coming to London.
Aged just 21 when war broke out in 1939, she had already married her first husband and had one daughter.
The daily said von Meiss-Teuffen is understood to have become a family friend to the Camerons.
Donald fell in love with her and moved out of the family home to live with her in Kensington. They married in 1946 and had one daughter.
Donald died in 1958, eight years before David Cameron was born.
His father Ian, who was aged 14 when Donald left, was shaped by the event and assisted his mother and learned the importance of “hard work”, the daily said.
