Old Flames: Boris Johnson's Turbulent Love Life as He Ties the Knot for the Third Time

The British Prime Minister exchanged vows at Westminster Cathedral with his long-time partner Carrie Symonds on Saturday. The ceremony was secretly planned and according to British media even Johnson’s senior aides were not briefed about the nuptials beforehand.

Carrie Symonds, formerly the Tory head of communications and mother of Boris Johnson's one year-old son, was seen arriving at Westminster Cathedral’s main door at just around 2pm on Saturday afternoon to marry Britain’s prime minister in a secret but highly-anticipated ceremony.

The bride donned a white folky dress and was later photographed with a flower wreath, looking all smiley and charming. This is the first marriage for Symonds. However, this is the third walk down the aisle for the UK PM, who is not a stranger to love scandals linked to his name.

First pics of the happy couple after the wedding in Downing St garden yesterday.

Rebecca Fulton/Downing Street/PA Wire pic.twitter.com/WX7EKGiMWN

— Natasha Clark (@NatashaC) May 30, 2021

​But apart from official marriages, Johnson’s string of affairs, including extramarital ones, is something forever engraved in history:

• Boris Johnson first got married in 1987, when he was just 23. He tied the knot with his Oxford University sweetheart, Tatler cover girl Allegra Mostyn-Owen. The marriage lasted six years, and according to Allegra, Johnson has been “a better ex than husband”. The two didn’t have kids and reportedly stayed on very good terms.
• Just 12 days after his first divorce, Johnson married British barrister Marina Wheeler, who was already pregnant with their first child, Lara Lettice. The two had known each other since childhood through their families and both studied at the European School in Brussels. Their 25 years of marriage were embroiled with scandals around Johnson’s love affairs and children resulting from them, ending in 2018 with a statement confirming their separation and divorce. The two reached a financial settlement only two years later, shortly before Symonds announced that she and Boris had been engaged since late 2019 and were already expecting a baby.  In addition to Lara Lettice, who reportedly described her dad as a “selfish b*****d”, Johnson and Wheeler had three more children: Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo.

London's Mayor Boris Johnson, right, and his wife Marina Wheeler wait for the start of the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London

© AP Photo / Jae C. Hong

During his marriage to Wheeler, Johnson was allegedly dating journalist Petronella Wyatt for about four years, starting in 2000. Wyatt was his colleague and subordinate at Spectator magazine, where he was an editor. The relationship was never confirmed by Johnson and ended when the future prime minister failed to leave Wheeler, according to the journalist’s mother Lady Verushka Wyatt. Petronella, who described her alleged beau as a “loner”, also reportedly had a miscarriage during the affair.

In 2004, while married to Marina Wheeler, Boris Johnson had an affair with Petronella Wyatt, which resulted in her becoming pregnant twice. Both pregnancies were terminated and their relationship lead to Boris being sacked from Michael Howard’s cabinet for lying about the affair. pic.twitter.com/4VIR8nLL6F

— Ragged Trousered Philanderer (@RaggedTP) May 24, 2021

According to British tabloids, at around that time, Johnson was also seeing Guardian journalist Anna Fazackerley, who was later employed by Spectator.

The white-haired womaniser had the fifth of his children with arts consultant Helen MacIntyre in 2009. His attempts to stop news about the matter from circulating in the media were discharged by a Court of Appeal in 2013, with the judge declaring that the public had a right to know about the “reckless” behaviour of the then-Mayor of London.

It was during his Mayor years when Johnson allegedly had another, even more scandalous affair with Jennifer Arcuri, the American tech entrepreneur who was endowed with public money and trade missions from the UK public office back in 2013. Johnson has faced conflict of interest accusations over these ties due to his failure to disclose the connection, but the extent of the relationship between the two came to light only this March, when Arcuri exclusively sat with the Sunday Mirror to claim the two had a passionate love story from 2012 to 2016. According to Arcuri, she slept with Johnson for the first time in 29 August 2012, just several hours before the mayor took part in the opening ceremony for the Paralympics games. She said the two repeatedly exchanged some saucy pics with each other while he was still married. But the American grew extremely disappointed in her ex-lover for his failure to support her during accusations of favouritism.

Exactly

Of course the extent of the Bamford’s generosity to the PM is unclear

Because Johnson has characteristically failed to comply with the requirements to declare the gifts he received

Just as he failed to declare any interest regarding Jennifer Arcuri

Or Flat Refurb pic.twitter.com/ua4mGw1UIH

— Bruce McD (@brucemcd23) May 23, 2021

It was only in 2018 when Marina Wheeler was reportedly “finished” with her ex-husband, in the words of their daughter Lara. By 2019, the prime minister has already been living with Symonds, who gave birth to their son Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson in April 2020, shortly after she and Johnson had recovered from COVID-19.

Rugby Union - Six Nations Championship - England v Wales - Twickenham Stadium, London, Britain - March 7, 2020

© REUTERS / TOBY MELVILLE