Tony Blair is a better politician than a husband, his wife Cherie has admitted.
In a candid TV interview, Lady Blair also revealed he took it 'badly' when she got a chance to stand for Parliament before he did.
And she denied she had been a 'Lady Macbeth figure' in Downing Street, insisting he has never been her puppet.
Lady Blair, 71, made the comments in a Channel 4 documentary, The Tony Blair Story, in which her husband claims history may yet vindicate his decision to join the US invasion of Iraq.
Sir Tony, 72, said he was inspired by the 1993 film Schindler's List to decide that he could not be a 'bystander' and owed 'some responsibility to the bigger world'.
As the Daily Mail told last week, Lady Blair admitted Sir Tony had 'lost contact with reality' by the time he resigned after a decade in No 10.
In the three-part series, which begins on Tuesday, Lady Blair is asked about her husband's flaws. 'He is an amazing politician,' she replied.
'As a husband and as a human being, that's a different matter, but that's really between me and him.'
In a candid TV interview, Lady Blair revealed he took it 'badly' when she got a chance to stand for Parliament before he did
Sir Tony, 72, said he was inspired by the 1993 film Schindler's List to decide that he could not be a 'bystander' and owed 'some responsibility to the bigger world'
Asked if he had been romantic when the couple were courting, she laughed: 'No, not really. Tony's not very romantic. He's never bought me flowers.'
Lady Blair was chosen by Labour as the party's candidate for North Thanet in the 1983 general election. Although she lost, she was selected before Sir Tony won a last-minute scramble to stand in Sedgefield.
Asked how her husband coped when she was offered a seat before him, she admitted: 'Badly. He felt he had missed his chance. I was going to go and fight a hopeless seat, but at least I was fighting a seat.'
Lady Blair also told how she encouraged her husband to let other politicians make a challenge for the Labour leadership, apart from Gordon Brown, who claimed Sir Tony had promised it to him. 'I was saying to him you need to make space for others [other] than Gordon to come forward,' she said. 'And he would always say to me, "I cannot choose my successor". And I would say, "by not doing that, you're effectively choosing Gordon".'
But asked about the accusation that she was a 'sort of Lady Macbeth figure', she replied: 'I thought that was a joke. I thought it was Gordon who described me as Lady Macbeth. If anyone thinks Tony's my puppet, they just don't understand the nature of the man.'