Edwina Currie has hit out at ex-lover John Major for saying their affair was the one thing in his life of which he was "most ashamed".

The former Conservative Prime Minister made the damning remark after it was revealed on Saturday that he and Mrs Currie had had a four-year affair while they were both married in the 1980s.

But a defiant Mrs Currie - an ex-Tory minister - told The Times, which is serialising her diaries: "He was not very ashamed of it at the time, I can tell you.

It was a challenge to unearth the real person, and to seduce him - easy!

Edwina Currie on Major

"I think I'm slightly indignant about that remark."

While she was pleased Mr Major had not been so "foolish" as to try to deny the relationship, she added: "It's sad he was unable to say a kind word.

"These are secrets which have been kept for the best part of 15 years. There was a lot of pain involved in keeping those secrets."

In the first extracts from the flamboyant ex-health minister's diaries to be published, it is disclosed that the relationship with Mr Major was not her first extra-marital affair.

'Spectacularly good'

She wrote of the first one being "a right slob", with "kinky preferences" and "a selfishness of such magnitude as I've never met before".

"Then B [her diary codename for Mr Major] came along and he was so attractive, and so quiet in public that it was a challenge to unearth the real person, and to seduce him - easy!

"And it was unexpectedly, spectacularly good, for such a long time."

Following Saturday's disclosure of the affair, which stunned the world of politics, it emerged that Mr Major could face a legal challenge from two magazines he successfully took action against in 1993 for alleging he had been unfaithful to his wife.

Lawyers for both Scallywag and the New Statesman are looking into whether they are due compensation for the money they lost defending themselves against Mr Major.

He had claimed their articles falsely accusing him of committing infidelity with a Downing Street caterer could have ruined his reputation.