HAPPY CARRIE
But will busy dad Boris be at birth?
BORIS Johnson could miss the birth of his baby because of a string of overseas visits this summer.
The Prime Minister’s busy month of world travel includes two summits and EU trade negotiations in June, when his partner Carrie Symonds is thought to be giving birth.
Mr Johnson, 55, and Ms Symonds, 31, confirmed the pregnancy and their engagement on Saturday.
But aides fear Mr Johnson could be abroad when his partner goes into labour.
The Prime Minister and other world leaders have a G7 summit at US President Donald Trump’s Maryland retreat Camp David in midJune and his stay could be extended by transatlantic trade deal talks.
Crucial
He also has the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in late June and, with UK-EU trade talks reaching a crucial stage, could have to travel to Europe.
Downing Street was unable to say yesterday whether Mr Johnson will take paternity leave – new fathers can have up to two weeks off.
Meanwhile, in a post on Instagram under her nickname Apples, Ms Symonds wrote: “We got engaged at the end of last year...and we’ve got a baby hatching early summer.”
She said she and Mr Johnson felt “incredibly blessed”. The Prime
Minister, who has at least five children, was thought to have proposed during a Christmas break on the Caribbean island of Mustique.
The marriage, Mr Johnson’s third, will make him the first premier to wed while in office since Lord Liverpool nearly 200 years ago.
Mr Johnson and Ms Symonds are also the first unmarried couple to live together in Downing Street.
Earlier this month, a court heard Mr Johnson and his estranged second wife Marina Wheeler were preparing to end their marriage after reaching a financial settlement.
Conservationist Ms Symonds, an ex-Tory party communications chief, first made headlines when she and Mr Johnson were romantically linked last year.
But their association dates back to when she worked on his London mayor re-election bid in 2012.
Their new arrival will be the third baby born to a serving prime minister in recent history. Tony Blair’s wife
Cherie gave birth to son Leo in May 2000, three years after her husband’s first election victory.
David Cameron and his wife Samantha welcomed daughter Florence Rose Endellion Cameron in 2010, three months after Mr Cameron formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats after the general election produced a hung parliament.
The last babies born to prime ministers before Leo and Florence arrived more than 150 years ago.
Lord John Russell’s wife, Lady Russell, gave birth to two sons, George and Francis, during her husband’s first stint in office between 1846 and 1852.
Mr Johnson is believed to be the first modern-day premier to divorce and marry in office.
The last to do so wasAugustus FitzRoy, the 3rd Duke of Grafton, who became prime minister in 1768.
He divorced and remarried the following year.
Mr Johnson met his first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, while they were students at Oxford. They wed in 1987 but the marriage was annulled in 1993. He and Ms Wheeler, the daughter of BBC journalist Charles Wheeler, were childhood friends at the European School in Brussels.
They married in 1993, had four children, and separated in 2018.
In 2004 Mr Johnson was sacked from the Tory frontbench over a reported affair with journalist PetronellaWyatt.
And in 2013, it emerged during a court hearing that he had fathered a daughter from a liaison while Mayor of London in 2009.