The Untold Truth Of Boris Johnson's Ex-Wives

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is surely used to dealing with drama due to his political career, but he's also stirred up plenty of drama in his personal life, as well. The drama includes multiple marriages, multiple affairs, and multiple children. Additionally, the Daily Mail reports that he might have gotten "at least two of his mistresses pregnant." Frankly, Johnson's relationships have been bumpy from the start and that certainly includes his marriages to his two ex-wives.

Johnson met his first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, a former magazine cover girl who is the daughter of writer Gaia Sevadio and art historian William Mostyn-Owen, while the two were students at Oxford, per the Daily Mail. "Allegra had a lot of the Italian Botticelli angel looks: blonde and ethereal," an Oxford alum told the outlet. "That quality made her seem untouchable... which is precisely what Boris would have wanted as [a] trophy."

That being said, things were already going awry by the time they held their wedding. According to the Daily Mail, Johnson showed up "without his trousers. Or shoes. ... From there, it was all downhill." 

Mostyn-Owen herself later claimed, "When we got married, that was actually the end of the relationship instead of the beginning," apparently, in part, because of what the Mail deemed was his "buffoonery, vaulting ambition, all-consuming pursuit of career glory, and notoriously elastic relationship with the truth." The marriage ended after six years and before their divorce was settled, he was already expecting a child with the woman who would become his next ex-wife.

Boris Johnson's first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, claimed that her marriage ended when her now-ex came to her and "suddenly blurted out that he wanted a quickie divorce," according to the The Evening Standard. When she simply asked, "Is she pregnant?," referring to his mistress, he replied, "Yes, how did you guess?" The other woman who was carrying his baby was Marina Wheeler, another former school friend and a barrister.

When Johnson and Wheeler married on May 8, 1993, The Sun notes that it was "allegedly 12 days after his first divorce." The pair welcomed a daughter, Lara, together as well as three other children during their 25-year marriage. However, their relationship couldn't stand up against his cheating ways. Apparently, "[d]uring his marriage to Marina," Johnson "had several affairs, many of which caught the attention of the media." Although his wife initially "threw him out of their home" after he had been caught cheating, she "later took him back" and stayed with her unfaithful spouse. However, the forgiveness didn't last.

Johnson and Wheeler announced that they were separating "in 2018 ... after he had been spotted having an affair with Conservative PR guru Carrie Symonds," a situation that resulted in Lara calling her father a "selfish b**tard." When Johnson and Wheeler filed for divorce, "his cheating [was] cited as the reason."

Boris Johnson has been accused of being unfaithful multiple times, including a four-year affair with society writer Petronella Wyatt, who was a columnist under Johnson when he was an editor at The Spectator. "Petronella later said she had an abortion and suffered a miscarriage," according to The Sun. "When the affair became public knowledge Johnson was forced to quit as shadow arts minister and party vice-chairman in 2004 ... for not telling the whole truth about his indiscretion," proving that infidelity can definitely hurt your career.

During that same period, Johnson was also apparently in an illicit relationship with journalist Anna Fazackerley, and in 2009, engaged in a dalliance with arts consultant Helen Macintyre, per The Sun. The latter situation became even more complicated when, "following a court battle, it was revealed that Johnson had fathered a child during the fling with Helen." 

However, it was Johnson's affair with Carrie Symonds, a woman around two decades younger than the politician, that finally ended things with his second wife, Marina Wheeler, after she allegedly found incriminating messages on his cell phone before he "was snapped enjoying a romantic dinner with the former Tory aide on Valentine's day." 

Wheeler and Johnson reached a divorce settlement in February 2020, the same month that he announced that he was engaged and expecting a child with Symonds. Only time will tell if this marriage will survive or if Symonds will become ex-wife #3.