 According to his biographer David Day, Chifley engaged in an long-running extramarital affair with his private secretary Phyllis Donnelly.Day believed that their relationship began shortly after Chifley was elected in parliament in 1928, and continued more or less uninterrupted until his death in 1951; she was present in his room at the Hotel Kurrajong when he suffered his final heart attack.She stayed at the same hotel, and they were known to spend their free time with each other while in Canberra.