Christine Ford’s high school friend, Leland Keyser, was ‘completely blindsided’ and left ‘reeling’ when the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape named her as a corroborating witness.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMailTV a family member close to Keyser, 52, said: ‘Christine didn’t give her so much as a heads up – as far as I know, they haven’t really spoken for several years and they’re certainly not close anymore.

‘Leland was completely blindsided by her name being thrown into it all. The first thing she knew about it was when she woke up on Thursday morning and her name was just everywhere. It was crazy.’

The family member who asked not to be named explained: ‘She’s just trying to get through it and hoping for it all to die down.

‘It really felt a lot like Christine was the one called to the principal’s office to give an account of something and just threw her under the bus. You know, just reached for a name.’

Ford tried to maintain the two were still part of one another’s lives by excusing Leland’s comments by blaming it on the reported friend’s .health issues.

‘Leland has significant health challenges, and I’m happy that she’s focusing on herself and getting the health treatment that she needs, and she let me know that she needed her lawyer to take care of this for her, and she texted me right afterward with an apology and good wishes, and et cetera.

‘So I’m glad that she’s taking care of herself. I don’t expect that P.J. and Leland would remember this evening.

‘It was a very unremarkable party. It was not one of their more notorious parties, because nothing remarkable happened to them that evening. They were downstairs.’

Speaking in her defense Keyser’s loved one noted: ‘I think it’s quite convenient that she named the person who is frankly probably the least physically capable of all of them to stand up and be subjected to questioning or give her account.’