Kimberly Quinn
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Kimberly Quinn (born 1961 as Kimberly Solomon, also formerly known as Kimberly Fortier) is an American journalist, commentator, and magazine publisher. Latterly the publisher of British conservative news magazine The Spectator, the controversy surrounding her affair with British Home Secretary David Blunkett led to his December 2004 resignation.
A native of Los Angeles, California, she is one of two daughters of businessman Marvin Solomon and his actress wife Lugene Sanders. She studied at Vassar College and later at Oxford University. She worked at Cosmopolitan magazine and then edited Woman's Day. Subsequently she has written for several publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Erotic Review, and UK newspapers The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Evening Standard, and The Independent. Before taking her position at The Spectator in 1996, she was the Communications and Marketing Director for Conde Nast in the UK.
In 1987 she married American investment banker Michael Fortier; the couple divorced in 2000 following revelations of her affair with publisher Stephen Quinn. The following year she married Quinn, the managing editor of Vogue and GQ magazines. Despite her reported affair with Mr Blunkett, the couple reconciled in 2004.
Mrs Quinn's affair with Blunkett, which reportedly began shortly after her wedding to Mr Quinn, ended acrimoniously in early 2004. During that period Mrs Quinn gave birth to one son and became pregnant with a second child. David Blunkett contended that he was the father of both children, although Mr Quinn (who had a vasectomy reversal operation following his wedding) and Mrs Quinn both strongly denied this. However, DNA tests later proved that Mr Blunkett is the father of Mrs Quinn's eldest child, William.
Following the end of the affair, moves by Blunkett to gain informal access to the first child were rejected by Mrs Quinn and in early December 2004 Blunkett petitioned the Family Division of the High Court to grant him legal access. Mrs Quinn, heavily pregnant, was admitted to hospital prior to the hearing; her petition that it should be deferred (on the grounds of her ill-health) until her child was born was rejected. The matter remains sub judice.
Controversy around a number of matters arising from the affair, particularly concerns over the handling of Mrs Quinn's nanny's visa, contributed to Mr Blunkett's resignation in mid-December 2004. A number of newspapers alleged that Mrs Quinn had given details of these matters (which also included her use of government-issued rail tickets and his having supposedly told her classified information) to the press, as part of her strategy in opposing Mr Blunkett's legal petition.
Shortly after Blunkett's resignation it was revealed by the News of the World that Mrs Quinn had also had an affair with Simon Hoggart, a political journalist and regular contributor to The Spectator. Hoggart is married and the affair began before the Quinns married but he has admitted that infrequent sexual relations continued after her marriage. He denies any possible paternity for Mrs Quinn's children. Some observers have suggested that the father of Mrs Quinn's younger son is M. J. Akbar, an Indian media tycoon; he has denied the suggestion. Other sources have alleged that Mrs Quinn also had an affair with Labour peer Sandy Leitch and with an unnamed breakfast radio broadcaster. The revelation of Mrs Quinn's having had several lovers from the media world led one British newspaper columnist to begin one of his articles by declaring that he had never had an affair with Mrs Quinn.
On February 2, 2004, Quinn gave birth to a second son, Lorcan. A month later, on March 4, Blunkett announced that DNA tests had revealed that he was not the father of Quinn's second child. It also emerged that Stephen Quinn was not the child's father either. Stephen Quinn angrily denounced Blunkett's renewed interference in his family's life the following day.
References
- BBC profile (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4051777.stm)
- A brief biography in The Jewish Quarterly (http://www.jewishquarterly.org/060302.shtml)
- Sunday Mirror story, including biographical details (http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=14558471&method=full&siteid=106694&headline=blunkett-is-ditched-name_page.html)
- Official Court Service report on the paternity case (http://www.courtservice.gov.uk/View.do?id=2946)
- Press Association/Guardian: Simon Hoggart admits affair with Kimberly Quinn (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,1271,-4682532,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704)
