Billionaire NFL boss Woody to be US ambassador
DONALD TRUMP’S “man in London” is to be the billionaire patriarch of the Johnson & Johnson healthcare dynasty and owner of the New York Jets American football team.
Robert Wood Johnson IV — known as Woody — was confirmed as the next US ambassador to Britain by the White House last night. The 70-year-old will take over from interim chargé d’affaires Lewis Lukens, who has been standing in since Barack Obama’s appointment Matthew Barzun left in January.
Woody Johnson will assume one of the most glittering roles in world diplomacy — officially known as Ambassador of the United States of America to the Court of St James’s. It comes with the keys to Winfield House, a Regent’s Park mansion with 12 acres of gardens. Top items in his in-tray will be future trade links between Britain and America after Brexit and the handling of Mr Trump’s apparently postponed state visit.
Mr Johnson was born in 1947 in New Jersey into one of the 50 wealthiest families in America. He is the greatgrandson of the founder of the business empire behind products from baby powder to Band-Aid.
The staunch Republican has been a major donor and fundraiser for presidential candidates including John McCain and Mitt Romney. He angered New York Jets fans in 2012 when he said a Romney win was more important than the performance of the NFL team, which he bought for $635 million in 2000. He initially backed Jeb Bush in the 2016 campaign but was one of the first “establishment” Republicans to jump on the Trump bandwagon.
Mr Johnson has been married twice and has had five children. His daughter Casey died of diabetic ketoacidosis in 2010. A second daughter, Jamie, has suffered from the autoimmune disease lupus. He is one of the leading funders of research into the illnesses.
Crazy Rich, a “warts and all” biography of the Johnson family by author Jerry Oppenheimer, painted Mr Johnson as a heavy-drinking “party animal” in his student years. He once broke his back after stepping off a cliff on his way to a party and still walks with a slight limp. @JonPrynn