Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fiancé Carrie Symonds got married at Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral on Saturday, according to the reports. Johnson’s office has also confirmed the stories of the secret wedding. The two have been living together since 2019 when Johnson became the prime minister.
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Before Johnson, the last prime minister who married in Office was Lord Liverpool in 1822. The reports for marriage have come just days after the rumours that the couple had sent 'save-the-date' cards to friends and family for an event on July 30, 2022. Reportedly, the couple had plans to celebrate their wedding next year with a ‘lavish bash’ and hence the cards were sent.
Wedding Shenanigans under COVID-19
Under the current COVID-19 restrictions, weddings are subject to only a small gathering of friends and family, meaning no more than 30 guests are allowed in COVID-secured venues. Amidst these circumstances, a witness told The Sun that the cathedral was forced to shut down for the wedding ceremony and said:
It was closed for about half an hour and they all came out after… It’s not very often we have weddings here, and when they came out, they were all bungled into a car.
The catholic cathedral was locked down at 1:30 pm and Symonds arrived 30 minutes later in a limo in a long white dress with no veil, as per the reports.
Further, the invitations for the ceremony were sent out at the last minute and even the senior staff at Johnson’s 10 Downing St. office were unaware of the wedding plans. Johnson-Symonds’ wedding comes after a turbulent political week for Johnson. He was earlier this week accused of bungling the government’s response to COVID-19 and being ‘unfit for the job.’
Relationship Timeline
Johnson, 56- and 33-year-old Symonds, who is an environmental advocate announced their engagement in February 2020 along with the news that they are expecting. Soon after in April 2020, their son Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson was born. This is Symonds’ first marriage and Johnson’s third. Johnson finalised his divorce from his second wife, Marina Wheeler, in 2020.
Johnson and Wheeler split up in 2018, after 25 years of marriage and soon after Symonds was linked with the couple as the ‘other woman’ of the relationship. Reportedly, Wheeler threw Johnson out of the house following the claims that he was seeing another woman. In 2018, Carrie Symonds was promoted Head of Communications for the Conservative Party and, the two have been inseparable and very much in love since then.
