Ex-Nanny Vows to Keep Mum So Blairs Won’t Sue

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife agreed Friday to drop court proceedings against her children’s former nanny in return for a pledge that she would not spill private family details in a book.

A spokesman from the prime minister’s office said Ros Mark had promised Cherie Blair that she would keep private any information about life at the Downing Street residence that she had written in memoirs.

Blair, a high-flying lawyer, began court action Monday to block publication of Mark’s memoirs and to seek damages after winning a temporary injunction to stop the Mail on Sunday newspaper from publishing details of the book.

Mark’s account covered the years leading up to and following Tony Blair’s landslide 1997 election victory that propelled him to power and his family into the public eye.

It included remarks on senior government officials as well as detailed descriptions of life with the Blairs.

The about-turn will come as a huge relief to Mark, 30, and her mother, who feared that she might have to sell the family home to meet any court costs.

“Cherie Blair has agreed to remove her former nanny Ros Mark from the legal proceedings which started earlier this week,” the spokesman said.

“She has agreed not to pursue her claim for damages against Ros. In return, Ros has confirmed she will keep private any confidential information relating to Cherie Blair and her family and return all copies of the manuscript in her possession.”

Sunday’s injunction named Mark, the Mail on Sunday and literary agent Jonathan Harris.

Legal proceedings against the publisher and the newspaper remain in place, the spokesman said. The Blairs’ court claim had sought about $23,700 in damages from Mark, Harris and the paper.

The spokesman said Cherie Blair accepted that the nanny, who worked for the family from 1994 to 1998, did not send any of her 180,000-word memoir to the Mail on Sunday.

The Mail on Sunday said that Mark had offered to cooperate over the story and that it planned to challenge the injunction in court. Harris denied playing any part in the publication.

“Ros has reiterated that she has at no stage authorized the publication of any material relating to the Blairs, nor would she have authorized any such publication,” the spokesman said.

“The Blairs . . . do not believe she would knowingly do or say anything that would damage or embarrass their family.”

Mark had signed a confidentiality agreement with the Blairs.