Jailed ex-minister turned priest Jonathan Aitken reveals he died THREE TIMES on the operating table after being rushed to hospital with septicaemia aged 80 and puts his survival down to 'wonderful' doctors and 'prayers'
- Andy Coulson's podcast Crisis What Crisis? is on YouTube - click here to watch it
Former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken has revealed he died three times and had to be resuscitated by medics during a hospital fight against septicaemia aged 80.
The former Treasury and defence minister put his survival at such an advanced age down to a carer who got him to hospital, the 'wonderful' medics and 'prayers'.
Speaking to Andy Coulson's Crisis What Crisis Podcast Reverend Aitken, who became an Anglican priest after serving a high-profile prison sentence for perjury that ended his political career, said he was not expected to pull through after a 'minor complication' took a turn for the worse.
'At the last minute I got back into hospital and they thought they couldn't save me but they did and I came through,' he told the former News Of the World editor.
'Of course there are many explanations for why I came through: the skill of the surgeons, certainly the prayers of other people.
Speaking to Andy Coulson's Crisis What Crisis Podcast Reverend Aitken, who became an Anglican priest after serving a high-profile prison sentence for perjury that ended his political career, said he was not expected to pull through after a 'minor complication' took a turn for the worse.
Mr Aitken, 81, was jailed for 18 months in 1999 after being convicted of perjury after accusing the Guardian newspaper of libel. He served seven months before being released, but his career was ruined.
'And there are mysteries here far beyond my vision, but I would certainly say the mystery of faith is one. The mystery of why some people are natural fighters against the odds, we are all made differently. And then the people involved.
'There was a wonderful carer called Jessie who got me to the hospital at the right time. There was a wonderful surgeon and a wonderful anaesthetist who had terrible problems because I died three times on the operating table.'
Rev Aitken, also a former journalist and writer, also revealed he has interviewed all the medics, with a view to recounting the experience.
Mr Aitken, 81, was jailed for 18 months in 1999 after being convicted of perjury after accusing the Guardian newspaper of libel. He served seven months before being released, but his career was ruined.
He sued the newspaper after it said he allowed aides of the Saudi royal family to pay his £1,000 hotel bill at the Paris Ritz in September 1993.
He had famously vowed to 'cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of fair play.'
But he admitted committing perjury after the paper produced evidence that showed he was lying in his evidence.
He also said that the film star Richard Harris, who had previously been married to Aitken's second wife Elizabeth (pictured)- who died in 2022 - had helped him prepare for prison by introducing him to 'mysterious people from the underworld.'
The ex-Tory MP was ordained at St Paul's Cathedral in 2018 and followed it with a celebration at the Old Bailey.
He joked at the time that his first return to the famous London court building since being jailed there 19 years ago would be a happier occasion.
He told the CWC podcast that he initially thought about becoming a taxi driver after being released from prison, before being dissuaded by his children.
'My children kept saying, ''What are you going to do?'' and I said perfectly seriously that I was going to be a minicab driver...
'But my children used to shriek, because they'd say, ''You get lost between Lord North Street and Sloane Square [in Westminster] so you'd never be any good at that''.'
He also said that the film star Richard Harris, who had previously been married to Aitken's second wife Elizabeth - who died in 2022 - had helped him prepare for prison by introducing him to 'mysterious people from the underworld.'
Andy Coulson's podcast Crisis What Crisis? is on YouTube - click here to watch it
