How David Cameron’s ex-lover fought again from habit to be a nun

Her once-luxuriant blonde hair is cropped quick, hidden beneath a conventional nun’s wimple. Our image exhibits the second when former socialite Laura Adshead took her ‘final, solemn, profession of vows’ to turn out to be Mother John Mary.

It was a milestone that this once-troubled girl had labored in the direction of for 14 years, lower off from the world at a distant Benedictine abbey. The girlfriend of David Cameron in one other age, she has since achieved a change much more outstanding than the political resurrection of the previous Prime Minister.

While her former lover is again on the coronary heart of British political life, having been appointed Foreign Secretary final week, Laura’s world couldn’t be extra completely different. The 55-year-old has devoted herself to a lifetime of prayer alongside 39 fellow nuns on the remoted 400-acre Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, a two-hour drive north of New York City.

In 2008, after years of alcoholism and drug habit, she entered the abbey and gave up all her worldly possessions, committing herself to a lifetime of quiet worship.

When The Mail on Sunday visited final week to hunt remark from her concerning the now Lord Cameron’s political renaissance, a fellow nun politely knowledgeable us that Regina Laudis is a closed order the place nuns even obtain Holy Communion from behind a steel grille throughout Mass to maintain them separate from others within the church.

This image exhibits the second when former socialite Laura Adshead took her ‘final, solemn, profession of vows’ to turn out to be Mother John Mary

Laura met David Cameron  after they had been each undergraduates at Oxford University

Laura’s transition from celebration woman to nun was first revealed in a 2011 Oscar-nominated documentary known as God Is Bigger Than Elvis

‘She cannot speak without permission,’ a nun often called The Portress, instructed us.

‘She must apply for leave to speak to outsiders, and that may take some time.’

Laura, a former pupil of £45,000-a-year Cheltenham Ladies’ College who was born in New Zealand to British dad and mom, met Cameron when each had been undergraduates at Oxford University. They then labored collectively at Conservative Central Office and dated from the spring of 1990 to the summer season of 1991 when, in line with reviews, their break-up was so devastating she requested for a compassionate depart of absence.

As Cameron rose via the political ranks, Laura moved to America, acquiring a grasp’s diploma at Wharton enterprise faculty in Philadelphia earlier than touchdown a job as an promoting govt at Ogilvy & Mather in Manhattan, the company that impressed the TV sequence Mad Men. But after her habit points she turned to Alcoholics Anonymous, discovered God and entered the abbey as a novice nun.

On a web page printed on the abbey’s web site dedicated to ‘The Final Profession of Mother John Mary’ in October 2022, Laura writes: ‘Making vows is a declaration of love. We make these vows not to an abstract notion of monastic life, but to a particular people and community. I made the leap, and have landed on the other side, and it’s beginning to really feel so much like dwelling.’

Every day Laura rises at 2am for the primary of at the very least six prayer classes performed in Latin. At weekends she works within the abbey store, promoting home-made cheese, candles and picket bowls comprised of bushes felled within the grounds.

She additionally helps on the 400-acre dairy farm, cleansing stables and tending her beloved rose backyard.

Laura labored with Cameron in Conservative Central Office and in line with reviews requested for compassionate depart of absence following their break-up

Images on the abbey’s web site present nuns milking cows, baling hay and making cheese.

Laura’s transition from celebration woman to nun was first revealed in a 2011 Oscar-nominated documentary known as God Is Bigger Than Elvis, about Dolores Hart, now 85, one other nun on the abbey.

Dolores had starred alongside Elvis Presley within the movies Loving You and King Creole earlier than turning her again on Hollywood aged 24 to take vows at Regina Laudis, the place she nonetheless lives.

In the documentary, Laura, whose theologian father wrote a ebook titled Philosophy Of Religion In Nineteenth-Century England And Beyond, mentioned: ‘I feel like I tried most things in life that are supposed to make you happy. That journey took me down into alcoholism and drug addiction. I remember telling my mother, “I’m going to hitch the abbey,’’ and she or he mentioned, “Yes, I can see this world has no actual which means for you any extra.’’

‘I looked at this place and saw women who had what I wanted. You make a decision here to surrender your life to God.’

Laura rises at 2am daily for the primary of six prayer classes in Latin, and works on the abbey store on the weekends

Laura lives in a easy room with a picket mattress, a shelf full of non secular books and shares a communal toilet.

The abbey has a guesthouse for guests looking for ‘peace and serenity’ the place a former classmate of Laura’s, Shelley Sprang, as soon as spent a while. Shelley mentioned: ‘She’s bought that sparkle and the depraved sense of humour she all the time had.

‘We nicknamed her the naughty nun – I won’t let you know why.’

She recalled assembly David Cameron when he and Laura dated, saying they might meet for ‘Friday drinks’ in London’s Sloane Square.

Laura is thought to have left the abbey solely as soon as, in 2011, to go to New Zealand following the earthquake that devastated Christchurch Cathedral, the place she and her dad and mom had worshipped.

Cameron married Samantha Sheffield in 1996.