The wife of Northern Ireland and Welsh Secretary Peter Hain was in hospital yesterday after a serious car accident.
Elizabeth Haywood crashed on the M4 near Bridgend, south Wales, on Monday night while driving her husband's BMW in bad weather.
Mr Hain's spokesman said the cabinet minister had cleared his diary to be at her side at the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, where she was recovering from a broken foot.
He said Dr Haywood was "shaken up and bruised, but other than that she is fine".
Her car was written off in the incident and she had to escape through the windscreen. No other cars were involved, the spokesman added.
Mr Hain went ahead with an address to the Welsh assembly in Cardiff yesterday afternoon.
Dr Haywood runs the Cardiff-based recruitment and head-hunting firm KMC International. The couple have no children together. Mr Hain, a candidate for Labour's deputy leadership, has two grown-up sons from a previous marriage.
He flew back from Northern Ireland early yesterday where he had been overseeing talks to re-establish devolution.
