The ingredients alone are capable of creating an explosive and highly spicy story. On the one hand, a young, promising politician, with a rapid development who has marked the prime ministership of his country. Without a doubt, a goal he can easily achieve. On the other hand, a young man, handsome but also a difficult character.
The two meet and these ingredients create an explosive mixture. From the beginning it was a given that disaster was imminent. No one saw it, however. Or he did not want to see it.
The issue is that when the "explosion" took place, the fragments did not concern only the two protagonists or their surroundings but an entire country. There are, in fact, many who say that this love story may have influenced the modern history of Great Britain!
A waiting prime minister
Jeremy Thorpe was born on April 29, 1929 and his future, one might say, was already predestined, although the truth is that he tried to chart his own course.
Little Jeremy grew up in a house full of professional politicians. He was the son and grandson of members of the Conservative Party of Great Britain. He studied law at Oxford University and everyone expected that the time to start his political career would not be long in coming.
And it did not disappoint them. Indeed, this is what happened, simply with a slight difference in the party, as Jeremy Thorpe mentioned before, he wanted to follow his own path. Somehow, he leaves the party that his family traditionally supported and rules with the Liberals!
From that point on, his political career has been on the rise. He became a Member of Parliament for the first time at the age of 30 and became the leader of his party in 1967. After a "numb" start in the leadership, he began to gain ground. Following the February 1974 election, he was offered a ministerial post in a Conservative government. The "agreement" breaks at the last minute but everyone knows that Jeremy Thorpe is now a waiting prime minister as his potential is constantly growing.
And that is where everything shakes in the air and begins to take the exact opposite course!
A secret, homosexual love
Until 1967, homosexuality was a criminal offense in Britain. So, anyone who had this sexual preference should keep their passion hidden.
And that concerned everyone. From… "ordinary mortals" to politicians. One of them was Jeremy Thorpe who was trying to keep his preferences secret. Few knew his secret and, given that he had a brilliant political career ahead of him, they not only kept it a secret but also protected it from's attacks.
In the mid-1960s, Thorpe met a young man. Norman Joseph, whom Britain will meet years later, as Norman Scott. A handsome young but extremely awkward character and a man with many psychological problems, who at some point managed to make a modeling career. Norman enchanted Jeremy Thorpe and the two soon became a couple.
They lived a love full of passion. The young politician, in fact, had rented an apartment for Norman to stay in order to enjoy their love away from prying eyes.
The two of them exchanged hot letters and Thorpe tried to provide everything to the handsome young man. Until their relationship began to go through a crisis and the feral politician who saw the road to the prime minister opening up in front of him, became more careful and avoided the young man. Until finally the two separated. It is understood that on the initiative of Thorpe and Norman to react strongly, considering that the politician "sold" him.
The catastrophic end of a stormy relationship
When Jeremy Thorpe saw that his political future was bright, he decided to get married because, as his advisers told him, voters would not trust a bachelor for the country's prime ministership. Finally, in 1968, he married Caroline Alpas, with whom he even had a son.
This seems to have angered Norman Scott, who not only began to spread the word that he was Thorpe's love partner, but also sent the police, the politician's mother, and elsewhere the love letters they had exchanged in the past! In fact, he did not hesitate to call Thorpe's house and inform his wife about it.
The rumors took the form of an avalanche and so Thorpe's party was forced to conduct an investigation to find out if its leader is really involved in this story. The rapid rise of Thorpe's popularity, however, left no room and the party concluded that yes there was a relationship between the two men but it was των Platonic.
The matter was temporarily "buried", however, in 1975 it became the big "bang", when Norman Scott (now he had changed his surname for artistic reasons) revealed that Thorpe, in October of that year, organized his assassination in order to shut his mouth once and for all, so as not to hurt his political career. As he had revealed, Thorpe had hired a killer to do the "dirty" job but he failed to kill him.
Thorpe and three accomplices were arrested for conspiracy to commit murder and brought to trial! The perpetrator of the attempt Andrew Newton - who managed to kill Norman's dog - was sentenced to prison for illegal possession of weapons, but was not charged with attempted murder.
In Thorpe himself, many different strange things happened. At the Old Bailey Criminal Court, the politician exercised his right to remain silent, and finally, in 1979, Thorpe, now 50, was acquitted. A decision that certainly saved him from prison but also put a gravestone in his political career. After 20 years, Thorpe lost his parliamentary seat, while earlier (as early as May 1976) he was forced to resign from the leadership of the Liberals.
In the mid-1970s, everyone thought Thorpe would be Britain's prime minister until the end. In the elections of May 1979, however, he was now a political exile and the prime minister was conquered for the first time in the history of Great Britain and Europe by a woman, Margaret Thatcher, leading many to say that this love scandal changed the modern history of the country.