The former wife of the British Foreign Secretary yesterday made a devastating personal attack on him, accusing him of having multiple affairs before leaving her for his secretary.
In a string of other allegations, Mrs Margaret Cook says her ex-husband had a habit of drinking heavily, in one incident in 1987 passing out on the floor of a hotel with a brandy bottle.
She also accuses both Mr Cook and the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, of "selling their souls to the devil" for political advancement.
In a book serialised in the Sun- day Times, Mrs Cook gave intimate details of the pair's troubled love life. She accused him of taking six lovers, including his secretary, Ms Gaynor Regan, whom he married last year after his divorce.
Mrs Cook portrayed the Foreign Secretary as cold and unfeeling, saying he abandoned her at London's Heathrow airport on the eve of a holiday when told the press had discovered his affair with Ms Regan.
In the book, A Slight and Delicate Creature, Mrs Cook alleges Mr Cook has become increasingly jealous of the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, and "hates" the former Trade and Industry Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson.
In an interview with the paper, Mrs Cook (54) denied she was trying to wound her former husband. "I am really not motivated by revenge of any description," she said. "If I had wanted to bring down the world around Robin's ears I would have written it very differently. The book is rather gentle, really."
Mrs Cook said her 28-year marriage soured as she realised her husband had numerous affairs.
Mrs Cook, an eminent hospital consultant, still lives in the Edinburgh house she shared with the Foreign Secretary. She claims her ex-husband was racked with "terrible guilt" over his career.
She says he sacrificed his leftwing, anti-nuclear principles for political advancement, and thinks Mr Blair did the same.