Columnist Terry Keane (68) dies

The columnist and journalist Terry Keane (68)  has died.

The columnist and journalist Terry Keane (68)  has died.

Ms Keane died this morning at St Vincent’s Hospital after a long illness. She is survived by her children Madeline, Justine and Jane. Her son Timothy died in 2004.

As a gossip columnist with the Sunday Independent, Ms Keane will be remembered for the "Keane Edge" column, in which she often hinted at her relationship with a well-known political figure.

In 1999 she went public with her affair with former taoiseach Charles Haughey in an interview with Gay Byrne on RTÉ's Late Late Show.

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However, in 2006 she said she viewed the appearance as a "mistake". Ms Keane said she had panicked at the prospect of a "tell-all" book being published and had decided to reveal details of the relationship first.

She joined the Sunday Independentin 1989 after being wooed by deputy editor Anne Harris but left a decade later having sold her story to a rival newspaper.

In a March 2006 interview on the Late Late Show, Ms Keane was asked by host Pat Kenny about how history might remember her. Ms Keane said she had at least another 20 years to change people's perception of her, but that she was essentially "someone who loves her family and who is loved by her family".