George and Thea expecting a very special Deliveroo
THEA ROGERS will receive a mammoth pay cheque from Deliveroo this month, but she is expecting a much more important arrival than that this year... and it won’t be on the back of a moped.
I can reveal that the takeaway app executive, girlfriend of former Chancellor George Osborne, is pregnant and expecting the baby to arrive in the summer.
A friend of Thea and George confirmed to me that the couple ‘couldn’t be happier.’
Thea, a former Treasury aide who is said to be the brains behind the national living wage, will hit the jackpot when her foodto-go giant floats on the stock market, earning her millions this month. But the couple’s financial success will soon be dwarfed by the joy of a newborn baby.
George, 49, former Evening Standard editor-in-chief, found love with Thea, 39, two years ago.
She was his Chief of Staff when he was Chancellor and before that his special adviser.
Soon after they got together he said of Thea: ‘I probably have never been happier in my life.’ That statement must have been rather a blow to George’s ex-wife of 21 years Frances, 52.
Thea, a willowy half-French brunette, was credited with overhauling George’s rather staid image while he was Chancellor, supposedly ‘metrosexualising’ him by improving his diet, making him lose weight and updating his wardrobe – not to mention getting him a fashionable haircut.
Now her boyfriend will have a another new lease of life with his third child on the way. His other children, Liberty and Luke, both by Frances, are 17 and 19. I can’t help but wonder whether – in that most modern of ways – a wedding might follow the arrival of the baby.
But last night the couple’s friends remained tight-lipped and said that ‘neither of them will be saying anything more’.
Both Thea and George went to Oxford, though at different times due to their ten-year age gap. Thea won a first in modern languages and philosophy and her career has been illustrious ever since.
Recently she and George snapped up a £1.6 million Georgian home in Bruton, Somerset, where they are part of a chic and elite circle dubbed ‘The New Notting Hill Set’ which counts Ben Goldsmith as its ringleader.
George, an alumnus of Magdalen College, is a close friend of television judge Rob Rinder, and the pair go to fitness training centre Barry’s Bootcamp together.
I’m already taking bets on whether Rob will be asked to be a godfather.
George has had a charmed life of late. He had a windfall of his own last year when he sold his family home for £4.95 million, having bought it with Frances for just £1.85million in 2006. The former Chancellor also has a £3million chalet in the chic ski resort of Verbier, Switzerland.
Seems George, famous for juggling plenty of jobs, will soon be able to add ‘father to a newborn’ to his long list... again!