Lord Archer's wife described her husband as "decent and generous spirited" last night as the novelist peer posed for photographers at their home in Cambridgeshire, with a discreetly place "sorry" letter on his desk.
In a statement, Lady Archer expressed her "cross" feelings towards her husband for the first time since Lord Archer resigned as Conservative candidate for mayor of London after he admitted he had fabricated an alibi ahead of his libel case against the Daily Star in 1987.
"I am cross with Jeffrey," the statement said, "but I have formed the judgment that he is a decent and generous spirited man over 35 years and that will not change over one weekend or over any number of weekends."
"We are all human and Jeffrey manages to be more human than most - I believe his virtues and talents are also on a larger scale."
The couple posed for photographers at their home, but did not invite any journalists to record their thoughts. One photograph showed Lord Archer writing a letter of apology amid the many letters piled on his desk. One of the apology letters was addressed to Mr Robert Halfon, who was a member of Lord Archer's mayoral campaign team: "I write to thank you for all the work you did on my campaign and over the past two-and-a-half years. I could write pages expressing my sorrow, but for now I simply want to apologise for having let you down. You deserved better. As ever, Jeffrey."
Lord Archer's spokesman, Mr Stephan Shakespeare, confirmed he would not be paying back the u £3 million the Daily Star estimates he now owes the newspaper arising from the 1987 libel case he won against it after it alleged a relationship with the prostitute, Ms Monica Coghlan.
"The lawyers believe the Daily Star is not entitled to have its request fulfilled," he said, adding that Lord Archer accepted he "currently" had no future in politics.
Lord Archer also appears to have accepted that unless the pressure of further damaging revelations forces him out of the party before he jumps, he must face the Conservatives' ethics and integrity committee in order to explain his side of the story. Proclaiming Lord Archer's faith in the ethics committee, his spokesman said: "He has accepted that there will be an ethics committee and he is satisfied it is not a kangaroo court."
However, there remain several outstanding issues concerning Lord Archer's involvement with a number of charities that must be addressed if he is ever to rebuild his public and political reputation. At least one organisation is re-considering its involvement with the peer.
The Economist is to publish an article today by the journalist Adam Raphael which, it said, would raise "serious doubts" about Lord Archer's conduct before and during the trial.
In his article, Mr Raphael raised new question marks about Lord Archer's whereabouts, and whom he was with, on the evenings of September 8th and 9th, 1986 - key dates in the libel saga.