Moira Salmond spoke out on Sunday to criticise the “attacks” on her late husband.
The 87-year-old said Nicola Sturgeon’s claims that she had to intervene when Alex Salmond was bullying people had caused her “great distress”.
Sturgeon said she stepped in “many times” when her predecessor as first minister and SNP leader had been “really rough on people”.
Current First Minister John Swinney backed up Sturgeon’s version of events, saying: “That’s how it was.”
Moira has since urged critics to “let Alex rest in peace”. But who is the wife of the late Alba Party leader?
Marriage to a political giant
Moira McGlashan is an engineer’s daughter from Peebles. She married Alex Salmond in 1981. She was a civil servant who was 17 years older than him and became his boss when he worked in the Scotland Office as a junior economist in the 1970s.
She was aged 43 and he was 26 when they married. She gave up her job to concentrate on running their home. The pair had no children and lived in a converted mill in Strichen, Aberdeenshire.
Privacy
Alex and Moira Salmond closely protected their private lives. Moira was regarded as being a strong, independent woman behind the former first minister. She reportedly played a big role in his success, with Salmond saying that she had an “effective veto” on his decision to return as SNP leader in 2004. She was also cited as helping him overturn a 4,000 Lib Dem majority to win his Gordon seat at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election.
Alex Salmond’s colleagues said Moira was “central” to his life and “an absolute mainstay”.
Moira had rarely made public interventions before her comments on Sunday and is not known for having a high public profile.
Alex Salmond’s death and funeral
The pair had been married for more than 40 years when the former SNP leader passed away in October. He had been in North Macedonia, speaking at a conference in the city of Ohrid.
Moira met her late husband’s coffin alongside family as it arrived at Aberdeen Airport from North Macedonia. She attended his funeral at the end of October and the public memorial service in Edinburgh on St Andrew’s Day.
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