MANDY Rice-Davies, the former showgirl who took refuge in Bournemouth while she was at the centre of the Profumo affair, has died at the age of 70.

She was one of the women involved with the scandal which rocked Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government in 1963.

Mandy Rice-Davies was a dancer at Murray’s Cabaret Club in Soho when she began her association with fellow dancer Christine Keeler and osteopath Stephen Ward. The connections introduced her to the world of high society sex parties, especially at Cliveden, the mansion of Lord and Lady Astor.

In March 1963, war minister John Profumo assured the House of Commons that he did not have an affair with Keeler, but within weeks he had to resign after he was revealed to have been lying.

That spring, Keeler and Rice-Davies rented a flat in Talbot Woods at Bournemouth to lie low. They became regulars at the Swiss restaurant and El Cabala coffee bar in Bournemouth town centre.

She and Keeler were in the national limelight again in July, when Stephen Ward was put on trial for living off their immoral earnings.

Faced in court with Lord Astor’s denials that he had slept with her, Rice-Davies famously retorted: “Well, he would, wouldn’t he?”

Ward took a fatal overdose the night before the jury was due to return its verdict.

Rice-Davies continued to live the high life after the trial, dancing, acting, writing and marrying three times. She later said she wished the events of 1963 which established her reputation so vividly had never happened.

"The only reason I still want to talk about it is that I have to fight the misconception that I was a prostitute. I don't want that to be passed on to my grandchildren. There is still a stigma," she said.

Last year she attended a press conference supporting the launch of a book claiming Ward was innocent.