 It was later revealed (in 2002) that during this period Major had conducted an affair with Edwina Currie, a Conservative backbencher and later Junior Health Minister; the affair ended in 1988.Major narrowly avoided the IRA's Brighton hotel bombing in October 1984, having left the hotel only a few hours before the bomb went off.Also in this period Major stood in for a Foreign Office minister on a trip to South America, visiting Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.