Mandy Rice-Davies, key figure in Cold War scandal that rocked British politics, dies at 70

FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 30, 2013 file photo, Mandy Rice Davies, former model and showgirl, right, poses with actress Charlotte Blackledge, who plays her in the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical 'Stephen Ward', during the show launch photocall, in London. Mandy Rice-Davies, a key figure in Britain's biggest Cold War political scandal, the “Profumo Affair,” has died. She was 70. Her PR firm said Friday Dec. 19, 2014, that Rice-Davies died Thursday evening "after a short battle with cancer." (AP Photo/Sang Tan, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Jan. 7, 1964 file photo, Mandy Rice-Davies waves goodbye at London Airport as she leaves for Munich for a singing engagement. Mandy Rice-Davies, a key figure in Britain's biggest Cold War political scandal, the “Profumo Affair,” has died. She was 70. Her PR firm said Friday Dec. 19, 2014, that Rice-Davies died Thursday evening "after a short battle with cancer." (AP Photo/File) (The Associated Press)

LONDON – Mandy Rice-Davies, a key figure in Britain's biggest Cold War political scandal, the "Profumo Affair," has died. She was 70.

Her PR firm, Hackford Jones, said Friday that Rice-Davies died Thursday evening "after a short battle with cancer."

Rice-Davies was a model and London nightclub dancer when her friend Christine Keeler had an affair with War Secretary John Profumo. The revelation that Keeler had had slept with both Profumo and a Soviet naval attache caused a media sensation and almost toppled the British government in 1963.

At a trial stemming from the scandal Rice-Davies dismissed a denial by aristocratic party host Lord Astor that they'd had an affair with a phrase that became famous: "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"

Rice-Davies later performed in cabarets and married several wealthy men.