John Rentoul: A money-grabbing mystic? Don't believe it

The quest for the "real" Cherie Blair is almost as frustrating as that for the "real" Tony Blair, but for different reasons. Mr Blair is a master of self-control and self-presentation, able with an actor's skill to adopt the role that is required of him in any given situation. His wife, on the other hand, is a more direct and straightforward person, but she chooses not to speak for herself when she can help it because she regards the media as a ravening monster that she cannot hope to control.

The way she has been relentlessly pursued by the tabloid press, and the Mail newspapers in particular, can only reinforce this view. But her self-denying ordinance comes at a price, which is the portrayal of her as a weird, money-obsessed mystic.

This is a travesty. Her interest in alternative medicine has been distorted through the lens of a press that is bound to give too much prominence to unrelated oddities. When an acupuncture needle earring was spotted in her ear, the tabloids tracked down the alternative therapist responsible, Bharti Vyas, and had fun with some of her more extravagant treatments, which Cherie had not used. She was accused of wearing a pendant sold as having healing powers, but it turned out it was a present from Hillary Clinton.

She may think there is something in acupuncture – many doctors do – but we should be a little sceptical of the claim that she has used a medium. This Mail on Sunday scoop involved the mother of Carole Caplin, her personal trainer and assistant, whose boyfriend is at the centre of the latest hoo-ha.

The worst thing that Cherie is guilty of is that, unlike her husband, she is not such a good instinctive judge of people. She has been doggedly loyal to Caplin, who first made the headlines during Blair's first Labour Party conference as leader in 1994 as a result of her former career as a topless model – despite the warnings of Alastair Campbell, her husband's press secretary.

As for the idea that Cherie is any more obsessed with money than the rest of us, this seems to arise from selective press reporting of the Blairs' holidays. In the early days, certainly, these were offered free by various rich so-called friends, eager to ingratiate themselves. But, after Blair got into trouble over Geoffrey Robinson's loan of his Tuscan villa, holiday bookings have been put on a strict pay-as-you-go basis – leaving the press to argue about whether donations to charity in lieu have been enough to cover the market value.

The truth is that Cherie is a sane, if driven, person. She is highly intelligent and very ambitious – for her beliefs and for her husband. But Cherie is more naive than he is about how she and her actions appear to other people.

It is entirely believable that she did not tell Alastair Campbell the full story when the Mail on Sunday faxed its 22 impertinent questions last Saturday. She knew that he disapproved of her closeness to Caplin because of the risk of "unhelpful" stories from her range of interests and associates. That has turned out to be a damaging political mistake.

John Rentoul's biography of Tony Blair is published by Warner Books