Author stands by claim of father's affair with MP

Jock McLean. Photo / Greg Bowker

Jock McLean, son of sportswriter Sir Terry McLean, is sticking to his startling claim that his late father had an affair with South African anti-apartheid MP Helen Suzman.

The assertion - made in a biography about the Herald rugby writer, TP: The Life and Times of Sir Terry McLean, which Jock McLean co-authored with Paul Lewis - has been challenged in South Africa.

Jock McLean based his contention on letters which he says have since been destroyed and on what he was told in South Africa in late 1970.

But former South African MP Peter Soal said archived letters between Suzman and Terry McLean "offer no evidence at all of an affair".

Soal, a friend of Suzman, said a search of her archives turned up correspondence but nothing to substantiate the book's claim of an affair.

"The most salacious part is where Helen ends the second letter 'Love, Helen'," said Soal.

Soal found three letters - two from McLean and one from Suzman.

In one note, dated December 8, 1970, McLean concludes: "So let me wish you all the warmest wishes, now and forever more: the world would be a pleasanter place if I could see you again La Belle Helene. Not la-ma. As we say Down Under - kia ora katoa. Yours, Terry McLean."

Soal suggested that McLean was "star struck" by the vivacious Suzman "and there was nothing more to it than that".

But Jock McLean said he was standing by his book.