Antonia: The truth about Mellor

Mention David Mellor and the chances are that one image will spring to mind - the infamous matter of what he used to get up to with Antonia de Sancha in his Chelsea strip.

Even if it is somewhat distasteful, the thought has kept the nation in idle amusement for 10 years and will no doubt continue to dog the former Tory minister right up to the day his obituaries are printed. Today, however, it was finally confirmed what many have long suspected: the whole thing was made up. The lovemaking in Chelsea strip (top only), the toesucking, the spanking - all fibs.

Mr Mellor has, of course, always said it was all a concoction by PR consultant Max Clifford (but he would say that, wouldn't he?). Only today, however, has the other party to those trysts in an Earl's Court flat confessed that the salacious allegations about the former Heritage Secretary's love-making were nothing but fiction.

In an interview with The Independent Ms de Sancha said: "The Chelsea strip was made up." The former actress, who employed Mr Clifford after the first allegations about the affair appeared in The People, added: "I went along with everything at the time. It was almost like I was having an out-of-body experience." Asked about the spanking and toesucking, she said: "It didn't happen."

Responding to the article, Mr Clifford - who is usually credited with being the inspiration for the Chelsea shirt - said today: "That's amazing. All these years I have totally believed it to be true. I'm just a humble public relations person. I tend to believe my clients when they tell me things, but then I'm not cynical. I was totally convinced. I'm quite shocked - disappointed, actually."

Ms de Sancha's confession came in an interview to mark the 10th anniversary of the revelations which led eventually to Mr Mellor's resignation from John Major's Cabinet. In it the 40-year-old, now making her living by importing Indian textiles, addresses the question everyone asks about her affair (apart, that is, from the one about the Chelsea strip).

"What the hell attracted me to him?" she asked. "That's a question I sometimes ask myself on very rare moments at awkward times in my life. Oh God, absolutely nothing attracted me to him physically. But sometimes you can meet somebody who is not an oil painting but you can forget about that and it's no longer important, it's who they are and what they're like inside." Admitting she was "seduced by the power", she said: "He was witty, charming and just

great fun to be with. The excitement was, to be perfectly frank, from being with somebody who was in a peak position of power. Though it was more than that. He made me laugh, I think I made him laugh."

She refused, she said, to accept the potential consequences - which included the possibility of public exposure and the effect on his marriage of 18 years. "I was too excited," she said. The affair was exposed after the owner of the Earl's Court flat, Nick Philp, bugged his own phone and sold the tapes to The People. "The intrusion is like you're sitting there naked and someone is cutting your body up very slowly," said Ms de Sancha. "Why did they [the press] want to give me such a bloody hard time? I had done nothing wrong other than to have an affair with someone who happened to be married. OK, that's not very pleasant, but it wasn't manipulative or vindictive, or a nasty horrible move on my behalf."

She last saw Mr Mellor - now divorced and living with Penny, Viscountess Cobham - at a restaurant a year ago when she was dining with Paul Halloran, the man who introduced them. "He freaked out. He went to the loo for about 20 minutes, then went and sat down at his table. I have never seen a man eat so quickly. He totally ignored us."