Shadbolt: I ended up in bed with Sue Kedgley

TIM SHADBOLT has admitted being unfaithful to his former wife, Miriam Cameron, and claims he shared a bed with Green MP Sue Kedgley, who was drunk at the time.

The revelations come in Shadbolt's new book Tim Shadbolt - A Mayor of Two Cities which will be released on Thursday.

But both women question his accuracy. In the book, Shadbolt blames his marriage break-up on his political career, saying he was burnt-out after his failed campaign for the Waitemata mayoralty in 1989.

"I ended up in the wrong bed and confessed to Miriam, who was broken-hearted and retaliated with her own lovers."

He says he understands why so many political leaders get divorced. "It's an incredibly stressful, divisive, vengeful and destructive occupation. It's also addictive."

Cameron, who has publicly accused Shadbolt of beating her, told the Sunday Star-Times it wasn't just one wrong bed he ended up in. "There were plenty, right through his Waitemata mayoralty. One was a 17-year-old girl."

She said she was pleased to have had relationships with two "lovely" men before her marriage to Shadbolt ended but claims he wasn't thrilled when he found out. "He punched one and threatened to kill the other."

Given the public outcry at allegations broadcaster Tony Veitch had physically abused his former partner, she wasn't surprised that Shadbolt who has never denied her accusations would not mention it in the book. She took heart he had blamed himself for breaking-up and losing his family but said: "If he has matured, why isn't he being a better parent to his children now?"

Shadbolt told the Star-Times he didn't want to comment further on Cameron's claims of his infidelity but said he would one day break his silence on her allegations of domestic violence. "I'm seeing this book as the first in a trilogy." He promised to tell all one day: "It's not a case of avoidance, it's one of delay."

In the book, Shadbolt also describes his night with Kedgley. He says he had always had a "crush" on her and when she turned up to a party at De Bretts Hotel in Auckland back in the 1980s, out of work and seemingly "insecure',' he listened to her "sad story".

He claims he wrote her a cheque for $1 million to put on her mantelpiece so she could look at it when she felt down and say to herself she was a millionaire.

He says the pair ended up in the same room and Kedgley who, according to Shadbolt, had been "drowning her sorrows" fell asleep. "Now I'm no moral paragon of virtue but I draw the line when someone is unconscious."

He claims nothing happened between them but Kedgley was furious in the morning, hissing "how could you?"

But Kedgley told the Star-Times: "I think he's spinning a great yarn." She had a vague recollection of the party but says she was working at the time. She remembered Shadbolt writing out the cheque. "I thought that was hilarious."

To continue the joke, she attempted to cash it, which landed Shadbolt in trouble with the bank.

But the rest was an embellishment. "I certainly don't remember anything about [it]."

The Invercargill mayor provides several other examples of his flings with women after his marriage to Cameron ended, including a one-night stand in a motel with "a beautiful young woman in a wheelchair" and "a wild young lady" he called Krissy Krossy, from Ponsonby. Their time together ended when police took her away after she refused to pay a taxi fare and then danced naked on the bonnet.

Hodder Moa's Tim Shadbolt A Mayor of Two Cities published by Hachette Livre NZ Ltd, will be released on Thursday. RRP $49.99

- © Fairfax NZ News