Munsinger was born in
Königsberg,
East Prussia (modern
Kaliningrad, Russia), on or around September 10, 1929. Little is definitively known of her early life. Her father was reported to be a member of the
Communist Party of Germany, and was killed in 1943. However, she was able to emigrate to
Montreal in 1955 under her married name aboard the
Arosa Star, as the paperwork she completed did not require her to report her maiden name.
Munsinger Affair Munsinger became involved in relationships with a number of high-ranking Canadian government officials, most notably cabinet ministers
George Hees and
Pierre Sévigny. She later commented negatively about Hees, suggesting he was "an ex-football star and that's it" who was "too sure of himself as a man"; Sévigny, in contrast, she pitied, saying that newspaper reports about him and his family were "nothing but lies" and that "he was the most innocent person in the whole affair". The affair became public in March 1966 when
Minister of Justice Lucien Cardin mentioned Munsinger's name during a debate in
Parliament, in response to comments from the Conservatives about security problems in the Liberal government of
Lester B. Pearson. The Liberals had been made aware of the affair two years earlier during a review of security cases involving senior government officials; Pearson had opted to not publicize it, and had instructed his cabinet ministers not to discuss it. After the story broke, the police were sent by the German government to guard Munsinger's apartment and prevent unauthorized access, as a crowd of reporters camped outside for several days. One German reporter posed as a waiter and paid the owner of the restaurant in Munsinger's building to allow him access to her room. A judicial inquiry regarding the politicians' dalliances with Munsinger found that there had been no security leak resulting from the affair. was tasked with locating her and bringing her to the show. He "snuck her into the
Pearson International Airport from where [he] conveniently tipped off the
Toronto Star", prompting a headline announcing her return. In the interview, Munsinger noted that "as far as I'm concerned, it wasn't a scandal, it was just life" but that "people know better by now" than to become involved in such affairs while in office. She also ridiculed the suggestion that she was a spy and suggested that
Pierre Trudeau would have been better able to manage the scandal than Pearson. She had planned to write an autobiography, to be titled
To Whom it may Concern, but this work was never published. ==Legacy==