David Cameron's Heartbroken Former Lover Becomes a Nun Called Sister John Mary: 'I Thought of Marriage... Then God Called,' Says PM Ex

THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: With her long serge habit, make-up-free face and closely cropped hair hidden by a traditional wimple, she appears indistinguishable from her fellow Benedictine nuns.

Sister John Mary is devoted to a never-ending ritual of worship and work at her convent with the 36 sisters who follow the Rule of St Benedict on an isolated 400-acre farm.

It’s a life she was called to but it is hardly one the 44-year-old glamorous blonde seemed destined for when she worked in London at Conservative Party HQ - with her ambitious young boyfriend David Cameron.

Sister John Mary’s real name is Laura Adshead. She is a former pupil of £24,000-a-year Cheltenham Ladies’ College, from where she went up to Oxford - meeting Mr Cameron when they were young undergraduates.

Laura dated him from the spring of 1990 until summer 1991, and while he worked at Conservative Central Office, she went on to become the then Prime Minister John Major’s correspondence secretary.

Then their lives took different turns. Mr Cameron was selected for political stardom, while Laura left politics to study at the Wharton business school in Philadelphia. » | Caroline Graham and Sharon Churcher | Saturday, April 28, 2012