LOCAL TELLS OF SEEING BOJO AND Taken to
weeks before his marriage split was announced. The Sunday Mirror told last week how Boris’s long-suffering wife Marina, 54, found a string of messages from Carrie on her husband’s phone.
Boris and Carrie were pictured beaming at each other at a Tory fundraiser – and it emerged they had enjoyed business meetings at the five-star Rosewood Hotel in London.
Now sources close to BoJo say the former Foreign Secretary has been in touch with Carrie again within the past few days.
One friend said: “He told her he was sorry for how she has been treated.
“He said he was absolutely beside himself and wants to try and protect her from this furore.
“Boris and Carrie are good friends. And, when the dust settles, he hopes they can meet again.”
Pals of the pair say it is unclear how their friendship will develop in the future.
But Boris is thought to be determined to make sure Carrie’s reputation remains intact.
DRAGGING
Our source added: “He has apologised for dragging her into what he calls a mess and for her being vilified.
“His marriage breakdown is not her fault. He is the married one, not Carrie. And he takes full responsibility.“
The source said Marina and Boris’s marriage had been on the rocks for some time before Carrie was ever on the scene.
He added: “This wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back. But it was the catalyst that made it happen.”
When news of Boris’s marriage split first broke, Carrie travelled to the South of France to stay with friends.
She is now back in the UK and was pictured chatting with a friend in the countryside last week.
For many years she was at the heart of the Tory Party’s PR machine.
She worked for MP Zac Goldsmith in 2010 and later on his failed London mayoral campaign.
And she also advised Boris in his role as London Mayor.
In 2013 she was the Tories’ head of broadcasting and after the 2015 General Election she became special adviser to Culture Secretary John Whittingdale.
She has also been an adviser to Home Secretary Sajid Javid when he was Communities Secretary – and directed Conservative media operations during last year’s General Election.
It was earlier this year that Boris and Carrie were pictured beaming at each other during a Tory event at London’s Natural History Museum.
A week later, on Valentine’s Day, they enjoyed lunch at swanky London restaurant Rules in Covent Garden. BORIS Johnson was spotted soaking up the sun in Italy alongside Carrie Symonds just weeks before announcing he was divorcing. The former Foreign Secretary was seen enjoying a walk with PR guru Carrie and a group of friends near a secluded villa she was staying at in the hills of Tuscany. When the Sunday Mirror visited the spot in Lucca, northern Italy, last week locals said they’d spotted his unmistakable blond locks in early August. Pensioner Vincenzo Luchesi, 72, one of the luxury villa’s closest neighbours, recognised 54-year-old Boris in an instant. He said: “I saw him with about seven other people including her. They walked along the road from the villa and up past the Church of San Macario in the village and then back down. “He was with other people who were all foreign. I’ve recognised him on TV since then. “We often see the owner in the village when he visits, but he wasn’t with them that week.” The £267-a-night villa boasts more than 1,000 olive trees in its grounds and the proud owner claims “no expense was spared” in transforming