Christine Hamilton

Early life

Hamilton's father was a GP in Ringwood, Hampshire and she grew up in the New Forest area. She attended Wentworth College, an independent boarding school for girls in Bournemouth and a co-educational Grammar School in Christchurch, Dorset. She then studied sociology at the University of York and first met Neil Hamilton when they both attended a student political conference.

MPs Secretary

Hamilton spent many years working as secretary to various Conservative MPs, first Wilfred Proudfoot MP for Brighouse and Spenborough, then Gerald Nabarro, MP for South Worcestershire. She notably stood behind Nabarro as he spoke on the steps of Winchester Court after being cleared of an apparent motoring offence. Hamilton worked as her husband's secretary following their 1983 marriage. Neil Hamilton eventually reached the post of Minister for Corporate Affairs between 1992 and 1994 in Prime Minister John Major's government. Neil Hamilton became embroiled in the Cash-for-questions affair, and the former BBC broadcaster Martin Bell stood against him for the Tatton seat at the 1997 general election. Bell campaigned as an ‘anti-sleaze’ candidate, and Christine Hamilton notably confronted him during a televised press conference on Knutsford Heath, which bought her to public prominence. Hamilton would later describe the confrontation with Bell as "...the making of me." The journalist John Sweeney would later publish Purple Homicide, an account of the campaign for the Tatton seat. Neil Hamilton's later failure in a libel case against the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed would lead to her husband's bankruptcy.

Entertainment personality

After Hamilton's electoral defeat, Christine and her husband appeared together on the satirical BBC quiz show Have I Got News for You, an appearance that established her as a chat-show personality and she subsequently appeared on myriad programmes including her own Christine Hamilton Show on BBC Choice where she interviewed celebrities who suffered some form of adversity, including Jonathan Aitken, James Hewitt, Bernard Manning, Ivana Trump, and Paul Merson and John Fashanu. The Hamiltons were the subjects of an episode of Louis Theroux's 2001 documentary series When Louis Met....

Hamilton has described herself as a "media butterfly" and has appeared on a variety of television shows since her husband's electoral defeat. Hamilton came third in the first series of the reality television programme, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2002, and reached the final of Celebrity Masterchef in 2010. Hamilton notably appeared on Have I Got News for You in 2002 and taunted presenter Angus Deayton over recent tabloid revelations about his personal life.

In the theatre, Hamilton has appeared in pantomime in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford in 2002, as the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Kettering's Lighthouse Theatre in 2011 and has taken the role of the narrator for The Rocky Horror Show musical. Hamilton toured her one-woman show, Share an Evening with Christine Hamilton, in 2003, and has appeared several times in Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues, including its 2005 West End run at Wyndhams Theatre, where she appeared alongside Jenny Eclair and Heather Small. The Hamiltons appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006 with their show, Lunch with the Hamiltons, at the Pleasance Dome in 2006. Hamilton said of their show that "There's no script, so it tends to be somewhat anarchic: Neil describes it as a cross between Newsnight and Hi-De-Hi! He's right, but the emphasis is heavily on the latter."

Hamilton was the face of 'British Sausage Week' in 2005 and the judge of 'Mr Gay Torbay' in 2009. Hamilton legally changed her name by deed poll to 'Mrs British Battleaxe' in February 2009 as a promotion for an online deed service company. She later regretted the decision.

Media commentator, presenter and writer

Hamilton has appeared on numerous topical television programmes including GMTV, Loose Women, This Week, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, This Morning and The Wright Stuff. Hamilton has also been a dictionary corner guest on Countdown.

Hamilton also interviewed successful women in business for the digital channel Simply Money, has presented programmes on Sky Digital's Destination Lunch, and stood in for Gloria Hunniford and Fern Britton on Open House and This Morning.

As a writer Hamilton published The Book of British Battleaxes in 1999, and an autobiography, For Better For Worse: Her Own Story, in 2005. Hamilton has also written columns for Western Daily Press and the gay magazine Refresh.

Rape allegation

Along with her husband, she was arrested in May 2001 by police investigating an alleged rape that was found to be entirely false. Hamilton described the experience as "ghastly and humiliating" and said, "The whole thing is just nonsense on stilts." Their accuser, Nadine Milroy-Sloan, was later imprisoned for attempting to pervert the course of justice. The police made a full apology.