ALEX Salmond's wife Moira was furious about a now-infamous picture of him feeding a lollipop to a young woman, the former First Minister has revealed.
The Herald's website went into meltdown when we tracked down the woman who posed with Mr Salmond 16 years ago.
Now the MP has opened his heart about the circumstances behind the so-called "Solero girl" shoot.
He told the irreverent online news magazine Buzzfeed he could not remember the stunt clearly.
He said: "It was a hot day, in the '97 or '99 campaign - you'd know better than me.
"Anyway, I bought all of my staff an ice lolly and the photographer there suggested I fed some to the woman in the photo.
"I remember that Mrs Salmond wasn't best pleased - I tried to hide those newspapers."
He said the picture was only "one of three bad photos" ever taken of him but declined to identify the other two.
Snapped during the inaugural Scottish Parliament election campaign, the picture went viral after it was re-published on Buzzfeed, even inspiring a copycat cat version featuring Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson.
The Herald traced Kate Adamson, who was 17 at the time, to her home in Melbourne, where she lives with her husband and two-year-old daughter.
The 33-year-old recalled going along to Stirling University with her father, who was campaigning for the SNP for "something to do" and was persuaded by the photographer to pose with Mr Salmond.
In his Buzzfeed interview Mr Salmond joked that Jim Murphy, the former Scottish Labour leader, and his chief of staff John McTernan were double-agents working for the SNP.
He said: "Agents Murphy and McTernan deserve the Order of Wallace, which I'll soon be sending them, for their service to the nation."
He also said he had met a positive reception from fellow MPs and Londoners generally after returning to Westminster.
He said: "I walked into a restaurant in London two weeks ago, and half the tables clapped when I came in.
"Half didn't, to be fair, but that's not a bad ratio. I've always got good reactions from the public, especially here in London."
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