Jennifer Arcuri sat for an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mirror to claim that she and Boris Johnson were secretly seeing each other from 2012 to 2016, while he was mayor of London.
According to the tech entrepreneur, the two met in 2011 at an event while she was studying business in UK. She recalls how during their first date, the then-mayor borrowed £3.10 from her to buy a beer and weeks later begged her to kiss him on the street.
“And I said, ‘Mr Mayor, I do not kiss politicians on the street’. He said, ‘This is my city, I don’t care’,” Arcuri revealed, speaking from her native America.
But the two did not start their passionate sexual affair that very night, she claims, which apparently left Johnson “very frustrated”.
Wonder what it was that attracted #flagshagging weirdo Boris Johnson to flagshagger-shagging weirdo Jennifer Arcuri? pic.twitter.com/gnoAY5eixP
— Will Black (@WillBlackWriter) March 28, 2021
Arcuri claims that the two slept together for the first time only on 29 August 2012, just hours before Johnson took part in the opening of the Paralympics ceremony to pose alongside Princess Anne, Prince William, Kate Middleton and his wife Marina, who he married in 1993.
“He was in contact all night. I did see him on the television. It was bizarre,” Arcuri says while revealing that the now prime minister was constantly texting her that night.
She would also occasionally tease him with some “tasteful” topless pics during their romance. Once she even got quite a weird reply to one of the racy photos, Arcuri says, as Johnson described her exposing image as “enough to make a bishop kick through a stained-glass window”.
“He’d say, ‘You are the most beautiful woman, I can’t stop thinking about you, but I love hearing what you have to say. Of course I love your body, and your face, and your breasts, but you are a very clever woman and I feel so honoured you would have me in your life,” the American shared.
The woman believes she “loved” and “adored” the mayor during their four-year stint but got increasingly tired of being “a back-up plan”, finally ending their relationship in 2016.
‘Conflict of Interest’ Allegations
Arcuri says that she also got extremely disappointed in her ex-beau, who failed to support her during the 2019 favouritism accusations.
The Sunday Times reported in September 2019, several months before the UK general election, that the ex-mayor Johnson was engaged in a conflict of interest for failing to declare his close friendship with Arcuri. The woman had participated in three trade mission trips and received thousands of pounds through mayoral funds and government programmes for her company Innotech back in 2013.
FROM ONE YEAR AGO.
— Jude 🇪🇺 🌹🌹🌹💙 (@jude5456) March 28, 2021
"Were you having an affair with Jennifer Arcuri? @BorisJohnson pic.twitter.com/4MHxD9H8n2
Arcuri now says that she “would have seen no reason” why Johnson didn’t declare her, claiming that she doesn’t understand the rules around foreign trips.
She also slammed her ex-lover for acting “cowardly” in relations to the accusations and alleged failure to stand up by her:
“It’s embarrassing. What a child. You can’t get on the phone and say, ‘Look Jen, this is crazy, welcome to politics’?”
"He just took the most cowardly, wet noodle of approaches. This is who he is and it’s about time we recognised that,” Arcuri unveiled during the interview. “A great leader is charismatic, courageous and brave. None of these words I would use to describe Boris Johnson.”
John Profumo/Christine Keeler - Resigned
— The Sting (@TheSting17) March 28, 2021
Cecil Parkinson/Sarah Keys - Resigned
David Mellor/Antonia De Sancha - Resigned
Edwina Curry/John Major - Resigned
Boris Johnson/Jennifer Arcuri plus giving her 100K of our money - Resign? Of course not, this is a dictatorship#BorisAffair pic.twitter.com/8xHqBA3XSY
The investigation into the “conflict of interest” accusations carried out by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) concluded in May 2020 that there was “no evidence” to suggest that Johnson had influenced offices in granting Arcuri with funds or trade mission bids – but the officials could still have been affected by the impression of close friendship between Johnson and the woman when making their decision, the organisation stated.
Johnson’s Turbulent Love Life
It was only in October 2020 when it was revealed that Arcuri and the mayor were more than just friends, but the details around their romance were unveiled by the woman only now. Johnson, who had been caught in a number of affairs during his marriage to Wheeler, has never confirmed his sexual relationship with Arcuri.
In 2018, he announced his separation from Wheeler and the two finalised their divorce in 2020. The prime minister is now engaged to Conservative Party’s former press officer Carrie Symonds and the two have one son together, born in April 2020.
He is also believed to have fathered a extramarital child with arts consultant Helen MacIntyre in 2019 - but has never publicly admitted how many children he has outside of his official marriage.
Arcuri said in her interview: "We were in an intimate relationship for four years. I loved him, and with good cause. But the man I thought I knew doesn't exist any more.”
Commenting on Arcuri’s revelations to the media, a spokesman for Number 10 told the Daily Star that they have "nothing further to add" to the claims.
