2 days ago
Bob Hawke's wife Blanche d'Alpuget doesn't look like this anymore! The late Prime Minister's widow debuts makeover as she promotes her latest X-rated novel
The wife of former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke looked unrecognisable as she promoted her new raunchy book in Sydney.
Blanche d'Alpuget, who became a widow in 2019 after her husband passed away, featured in a video posted to Facebook last week by Abbey's Bookshop.
In the clip, the 81-year-old wore a bold makeup look and heavy rouge on her cheeks as she encouraged fans to buy her new book The Bunny Club.
She wrapped up warm in a neutral-toned puffer jacket as she visited the iconic Sydney bookstore, accessorising with a red beret, a patterned scarf and pearl earrings.
Her hair, usually voluminous and curled, was a far cry from her signature do as it lay flat on her head in a short, straight bob.
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'There's plenty of s-e-x in it,' she told her fans of her new novel.
Adding her saucy take on the 'murder mystery' genre, she revealed that it's 'not clear if it's murder or a sex game gone wrong.'
'Blanche D'Alpuget delivers a gripping novel that unravels the shocking death of 'Australia's darling', the nation's most beloved and recognisable morning television presenter, found dead under mysterious and disturbing circumstances in her Southern Highlands home,' the caption read.
In 2020, Blanche sensationally claimed in a bombshell biography that her late husband Bob had four affairs while he was prime minister and was addicted to sex.
The revered politician had about four 'serious affairs' while national leader from 1983 until 1991, his widow told the writers of Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny.
Hawke was married to his wife Hazel from 1956 until their divorce in 1995; the affair with d'Alpuget began in 1976 and went on and off before starting again in 1988.
She said Hawke's behaviour would be classed as a sex addiction.
'At the end of a day of intense activity, he somehow had to let off steam, as it were, and there's nothing like a roll in the hay or five to do that,' d'Alpuget said.
The book claims Hawke's charm saw countless women mesmerised, with women throwing themselves at him in the 1960s and 1970s.
If rejected, Hawke was known to be brutal.
Former tourism minister John Brown also recalled how Hawke 'constantly' chased women - and wasn't remotely discreet, according to excepts from the book seen by The Australian.
Ex-union secretary Bill Kelty, who worked with Hawke at the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said the politician would routinely sleep with women during drinking benders which lasted until the early hours of the morning.
'Bob would drink, he would f**k somebody, and he would gamble until 2.30am or 3.30am in the morning - and then when the ACTU executive started at 9am in the morning, he was the second one there and he was fine,' Kelty recalled.
Hawke famously gave up alcohol throughout his leadership despite being a heavy drinker in his trade union days.
