His parents divorced the following year and, after Profumo married Valerie in 1954, he raised him as his own — later referring to him in his will as 'my very dear stepson'.
Two years later, the Profumos moved to a countryside retreat in Hertfordshire, where, according to their son David's memoirs, 'a shadow fell' on Valerie's spirits as her husband spent long hours in London, devoting himself to volunteering at Toynbee Hall, an East End charity for the homeless.
But, although he seems to have become immediately besotted by her, Valerie was reluctant to leave her husband straight away.
But Havelock-Allan gently turned down her suggestion and added some advice.