Saja, who was also Uday's cousin, was devastated when her new husband continued his unfaithfulness after their elaborate wedding in the late 1980s. She fled to join her father in Switzerland, where he was the Iraqi ambassador to the UN.
It was from there, eight years later, that she wrote to her husband, Saddam's oldest son, telling him that despite the physical and emotional abuse and the passage of time, she "still and will always love him". While she berated him for being unfaithful, she begged him to come back to her as a "loyal and faithful" husband with "no betrayals, no marriages".
In her letter, written in pink ink on pink paper, Saja tells Uday of the continuing depth of her love and concedes that if he will come back to her, she will "leave him to his own lifestyle". She tells him that his behaviour is "lowering your dignity and self-respect, your father's position and me and my family", and that if the sort of wife he wants is "a piece of furniture, then that is not me".
Uday married Saja, the daughter of Barzan Al Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, when she was a teenager and he was in his mid-twenties. The marriage was arranged by Saddam in an attempt to end his row with Barzan over his refusal to allow his daughter to marry Barzan's son.
The relationship between the cousins soon soured, however, and Saja fled to Geneva - from where the letter was written on July 12, 1996 - where her father had been sent as ambassador. She arrived at his house covered in cuts and bruises - a parting gift from Uday.
Barzan, who is believed to have acted as Saddam's financial fixer in Switzerland, was previously head of intelligence. He was captured by U. S. forces 10 days ago.
Uday's vicious behaviour and womanising are well documented. He later shot another uncle in the leg, and, as the head of Iraq's football team, would torture players who failed to perform well.
His wife's letter, written in poor English, reveals her misery.
"Tears run down my cheeks that prove my love and jealousy that I am suffering from you," she writes. "You could not believe the stab inside me as I wake in the middle of the night and find that you are not there.''
She writes of suspicions of his many affairs "in the north and in the south", but says she will "swallow my pride and give you your freedom".
She adds: "Uday, I want a family life. I want a husband that is loyal and faithful to me. I married you because you are my cousin... I need your respect towards me and my family. I want to be proud of my husband. I don't want to be feeling smaller than a mouse as I see people."
Although Uday was rumoured to be the most wealthy man in Iraq at the time, she insists that she is not interested in his money, saying: "I believe money is like a sandcastle. Once slightly hit by the wave everything is vanished."
Begging her husband to consider a reconciliation, Saja writes: "Uday, all that I am asking for is what any ordinary woman that loves her husband would ask. I want a man to take care of, share life with till death do us part. Trust me that I will keep your name honourable and bring up your children in their best condition.''
She signs the letter: "Your wife, Saja Al Tikriti".
The letter clearly meant something to Uday, who kept it in a blue velvet box in the dressing room of his 40-room palace on the banks of the Tigris, where it was found by The Sunday Telegraph last week.
There was no reconciliation.
Uday, now 39, continued his playboy life even after he was wounded in an assassination attempt in December1996, which is said to have left him partly impotent. His current whereabouts - and Saja's - are unknown.
© The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2003
