Benjamin Netanyahu

He married Miriam Weizmann in 1972. His wife became pregnant in 1978 and during her pregnancy he began an affair with a British woman, Fleur Cates. Miriam gave birth to a daughter and when she discovered the affair, she divorced him.

In 1981 he married Fleur Cates and she converted to Judaism. But this marriage did not last long and the couple divorced in 1984.

He married for the third time in 1991. His third wife was a flight attendant he met on one of his travels. The couple has two sons.

He was born on 21 October 1949 in Tel Aviv to Tzila Segal and Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, as one of their three children. His father was a noted Jewish historian who worked as a professor.

He spent his childhood in Jerusalem where he attended Henrietta Szold Elementary School. He was a bright student, very disciplined, active, polite and helpful.

His family moved to Philadelphia, United States in 1963 and he enrolled at Cheltenham High School from where he graduated in 1967. He then left for Israel to enlist in the Israeli Army.

He trained as a combat soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces and was on the team that rescued a hijacked jet plane at the Tel Aviv airport in 1972 in which he was shot in the shoulder.

He returned to the US in late 1972 after his army service and enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study architecture. However, he went back to Israel in 1973 to fight in the Yom Kippur War for a 40-day period.

He returned to the US to complete his studies and earned an S.B. degree in architecture in 1975 and received an S.M. degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1977. At the same time he also studied political science at Harvard University.

After completing his education he was appointed as a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Massachusetts where he worked from 1976 to 1978.

He returned to Israel in 1978 and over the years started connecting with several Israeli politicians.