During His Long Career, Boris Johnson Has Also Accumulated Two Ex-Wives

Boris Johnson and his fiancée Carrie Symonds have just had a baby together. Coming off of his recovery from COVID-19, the news was generally treated as a positive development for the U.K. prime minister, even as he deals with the fallout of the virus on his country. The news of Boris’s new baby had some wondering, though, who else Boris had been with over the course of his public life. 

Although he hasn’t married Carrie yet, Boris has already gone through two marriages. His first was to Allegra Mostyn-Owen and they were married from 1987 to 1993, when they had the marriage annulled. Just 12 days after that annulment, Boris was already on to his second wife, Marina Wheeler. Marina was the daughter of broadcaster and journalist Charles Wheeler.  

Just five weeks after Boris and Marina got married, the two had their first child together. Their families had known one another for decades, and Boris and Marina were married for more than 20 years. In that time, Boris had a number of pretty public affairs. From 2000 to 2004, it was reported that he was having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt when he was the paper’s editor-in-chief. That affair apparently resulted in two terminated pregnancies. 

In 2006, it was reported by News of the World that Boris was having an affair with Guardian journalist Anna Fazackerley. They never made a public statement about the allegations, but shortly thereafter, Boris hired Anna to work at his paper. He was later entangled in an affair with Helen MacIntyre, and eventually had a child with her. By 2018, Boris and Marina confirmed that they were separated. Their divorced was finalized in 2020. 

Boris confirmed his engagement to Carrie in 2020, and also announced that she would be having a baby. There are rumors that the two were having an affair, and some suggests that Marina was “crushed” by the news that Carrie would be having a child with Boris. The reports suggest that, after she discovered the affair, Marina threw Boris out and forced the divorce. 

You might think that the number of children the prime minister has would be publicly available information. At the moment, that is not in fact the case. Although many reporters have asked him to answer the question definitively, he has thus far refused to say with certainty how many children he has. We know the answer has to be at least six, given that he had one child illegitimately, four with Marina, and now has a newborn with Carrie.

Although the birth of his new baby may be seen as good news, the U.K. has had much of its focus on the prime minister’s recovery from COVID-19. In early April, Boris was admitted to the ICU as a precaution because of his symptoms. He has since recovered, and it’s been reported that Carrie was also forced to self-isolate because she had symptoms of the virus.