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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Politics
Charlotte Carter

Samantha Cameron speaks out on impact of Brexit on friendship with Michael Gove and Sarah Vine

Samantha Cameron has spoken out on national television about the impact Brexit had on her and husband David's now-fractured friendship with Michael Gove and Sarah Vine.

Appearing alongside former Prime Minister Mr Cameron on This Morning, Ms Cameron said "things happen and you can't go back to where you were" about the couple's former friendship with Mr Gove and Ms Vine.

The friendship dissolved over the EU referendum campaign, with Mr Cameron also slating Brexiteer Mr Gove in his new autobiography released on Thursday.

Ms Cameron said on the ITV show on Thursday: "We're very close, our children grew up together.

Samantha Cameron (ITV)

"But things happen and you can't go back to where you were immediately, particularly if the relationship is a strong one. By strong, I mean deep. I mean, you've been through a lot together.

"But time is a great healer and you never know what might happen in the future."

In Mr Cameron's autobiography, he wrote that in the 2016 referendum campaign, he saw Michael Gove turn into a "foam-flecked Faragist" and an "ambassador for the post-truth age".

In Ms Vine's response to Mr Cameron's autobiography, published in the Daily Mail earlier this week, she wrote: "We make mistakes and move on, or we should at least try, because in the end friendship is all that remains".

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron's autobiography was released on Thursday (AFP/Getty Images)

On the This Morning sofa, Mr Cameron said he thought it was a "beautiful article".

He said: "In that book I have many things to say about Michael: about his incredible record as education secretary, as a supporter, as a friend, as an intellectual influence and mentor that he was to me.

"But obviously I was very sad about what happened in the referendum campaign where I saw him, I thought, change, and stand in front of posters about 80 million Turks coming to live in Britain and all the rest of it.

"And, you know, it was heart-rending to see that happen.

"And I've tried in the book to be frank about mistakes I've made and I've tried to be frank about what I felt about the people at the time.

"There's no point writing a book like this unless you're pretty frank.

"It's not a history book but it's about what you thought and felt and feel now, and that's why I put it in."

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