Stephen Quinn is more used to media circles than love triangles, but he has been in the spotlight since his wife's affair with David Blunkett was revealed, writes Rosita Boland.
Until roughly a fortnight ago, the name of wealthy magazine publisher, Irishman Stephen Quinn, would not have been well-known outside media circles. But since the end of November, Quinn (60), who has been the publisher of Condé's Nast's flagship magazine, British Vogue, since 1991, has rarely been off the front pages of both the broadsheet and tabloid press in Britain.
The reason for the near-frenzy of media attention around Quinn comes by default: he is one part of an extraordinary love triangle. Quinn and Spectator publisher Kimberly Fortier (44) married in 2001: a second marriage for each of them. Within months of their marriage Fortier was having an affair with Labour's Home Secretary David Blunkett (57). It lasted three years.
Quinn already had three grown-up sons by his first marriage, Matthew, Jamie and Fergus. On remarrying, he had a vasectomy reversed, so that Fortier could have children with him. The couple then underwent fertility treatment. Their son William is now two. However, when Blunkett insisted on a paternity test, it revealed that it was he, and not Quinn, who was William's father. Fortier is now seven months pregnant with a second son.
The affair ended in August, but it did not end mutually. Blunkett, who made history as being the first blind cabinet minister, and whose first marriage ended unhappily years ago, was clearly devastated. The British press have since vacillated between describing him as unheathily obsessed with Fortier, and simply as a man deeply in love who had hopes of building a new family life. Blunkett is also reported as saying he thought that Fortier would leave Quinn and marry him.
Although there had been rumours circling London for several months, the affair was only publicly confirmed in recent weeks. The story has since staggered on from unseemly revelation to unseemly revelation. Despite pleads from Fortier and Quinn to be left alone, Blunkett is widely reported as wanting to take legal action, if necessary, to gain access to William. He has also allegedly recently sent a number of letters to Fortier, which say that he believes he is also the father of her unborn child. Ironically, when Education Secretary, Blunkett introduced legislation to allow fathers to demand paternity tests, even if the mothers did not want them.
All this prompted the Observer's Andrew Rawnsley last week to comment: "This must be a world first; a senior politician trying to prove that he is the father of illegitimate children."
Blunkett may well have put his political career in jeopardy. Among the various alleged indiscretions that occurred during his affair with Fortier, there is one that could have serious consequences. Blunkett is alleged to have "fast-tracked" a permanent work visa for Fortier's Filipino nanny, Leonica Casalme. This story emerged last weekend - allegedly leaked by "friends" of Fortier. Blunkett has denied it and ordered an inquiry. If the story does turn out to be true, it would result in Blunkett having to immediately offer his resignation.
Throughout this, Stephen Quinn has been resolutely supporting his wife. On Monday, he told the Daily Telegraph, "I love my wife and I adore William and I'm very much looking forward to the birth of our baby in February. And our future as a family is going to be wonderful...One should be capable of forgiveness in a marriage."
On Wednesday, the day after his wife collapsed and was brought to hospital, he issued the following statement about Blunkett's desire for access to William through legal action. "I think it is in the best interests of the child and her that the matter is put aside. I would like to seek an adjournment until such time as our baby is born and my wife has recovered from that."
Leaving the current publicity aside, Quinn has had a remarkable life on every level. Until he was 13, he was in an orphanage in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny: the son of a young single mother who left for England. He was then raised by an elderly foster couple. He went to London in the 1960s and has lived there since. Quinn started his career as sales executive for Thomson Regional Newspapers in 1967. He worked his way up, becoming advertising director at Harpers & Queen in 1975; publisher at the same title in 1981; launch publisher of GQ in 1988; and publisher of Vogue in 1991.
Quinn is extremely good at what he does: the millennium edition of Vogue alone raised €3.9 million in advertising revenue. His nickname at Vogue is "the Headmaster", due to his perpetually meticulous grooming. Staff who have worked with him describe him as a thoughtful, kind, and driven man, who has time for all his employees. Asked by the trade journal Media Week in April of this year to describe himself in three words, Quinn responded: "Charming, intelligent and effective."
Quinn comes back regularly to Ireland on holiday. His last visit here was in 2003, when he rented a house in west Cork. One friend he always looks up is journalist Kevin O'Connor, who has been a close friend of Quinn's for over 35 years. They first met at a business lunch in London in the late 1960s, when O'Connor was the London business manager of the Guardian's books pages. They are still in frequent close contact.
Speaking this week to the Irish Times, O'Connor said, of their first meeting: "We were Irish, we worked in the media, we sparked off each other. Stephen and I knew more about British history than some of the natives. He was interested in politics, art, books, the theatre. We hit it off and we used to meet socially after that.
"Stephen was always a great host. He was very bright and popular - the charming Irishman around town. He was always very active around town, always at the centre of a crowd and that's what pushed him well up the ladder. Underneath the charm, he was much more focused than the rest of us. There is steel underneath that light exterior.
"He had no guilt about being absorbed by the establishment," explains O'Connor. "He had a clear run there in England - he had no family ties in Ireland."
O'Connor has no compunction about saying that Quinn's wife, Kimberly Fortier, is not liked by Quinn's Irish friends. "Only a blind man and a besotted man wouldn't have seen her coming," he says.
It's the belief of O'Connor, and other of Quinn's Irish friends, that Quinn was "obsessive" about the children from his first marriage because he had no family himself. He also believes that it is why Quinn is so determinedly standing behind his wife, despite her lengthy - and presumably, to Quinn, embarrassing - affair with the man once tipped to be Britain's next prime minister.
"He is tough as f***ing nails when he digs in on something he believes in," declares O'Connor.
The Quinn File
Who is he?
The Kilkenny-born publisher of British Vogue
Why is he in the news?
It was recently disclosed that his wife, Kimberly Fortier, had a three-year affair and a son with British Labour Party Home Secretary, David Blunkett.
Most appealing characteristic
Standing by his errant wife.
Least appealing characteristic
Standing by his errant wife.
Most likely to say
One should be capable of forgiveness in a marriage
Least likely to say
David is like part of the family