Boris Johnson wed girlfriend Carrie Symonds at a secret service yesterday , the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Mr Johnson, 56, traded vows with Ms Symonds, 33, in Catholic Westminster Cathedral facing a small number of close family and friends – getting the first Prime Minister to wed in office since Lord Liverpool wed Mary Chester at 1822.
It comes only six days after the few – who became engaged about the Caribbean island of Mustique at December 2019 and also have infant Wilfred, aged one – delivered out save-the-date cards for guests telling them to maintain Saturday, July 30, 2022 free to get a marriage party.
Despite sending the cards out, the few are known to have been planning the little ceremony for just six months.
Under present Covid rules there’s a limitation of 30 guests in weddings – though the cap is expected to be raised on June 21st -‘liberty day’ – if most constraints are set to be raised.
Together with Mr Johnson volunteered to be back in the office a week, it appears unlikely the few – who can make their debut appearance as husband and wife in the G7 summit in June – will have a honeymoon.
One-year-old Wilfred attended the marriage as did two witnesses. Ms Symonds shared an image of the son in an area of bluebells – that some speculated was a nod to the convention of’something blue’.
Mr Johnson’s sibling’s Rachel, Jo and Leo Johnson are also known to have attended, together with his dad Stanley.
The PM’s leading consultants in Number 10 have been said to be amazed that the wedding had happened.
Throughout Covid, many couples have held a little marriage ceremony with only close friends – while organizing a bigger party for following the conclusion of restrictions.
The 30 guests have been invited at the last moment, with not a lot of church officials involved with the preparations for its ceremony at 2pm yesterday.
Armed police stood guard as traffic had been ushered out half an hour before by employees who informed them the construction was moving into lockdown.
They kissed after exchanging their vows for Father Daniel Humphreys, who baptised Wilfred to the religion in precisely the exact same cathedral last fall.
In addition, he gave the newlyweds that their pre-marriage directions.
Yesterday evening, cathedral chaplain Father Michael Donaghy confessed even he did not know the identity of this VIP bride and groom until it was over.
He explained:’It has been kept very discreet.’ 1 witness told the way the celebration has been’bundled into a vehicle’ after departing the palace.
A Westminster Cathedral spokesperson advised that the Sunday Times:’On Saturday 29 May, the marriage of Carrie Symonds and Boris Johnson happened in Westminster Cathedral.
‘All essential measures were required, in both civil and church law, and all formalities completed prior to the marriage.’
A No10 spokesman stated:’The Prime Minister and Ms Symonds were wed yesterday afternoon in a little ceremony in Westminster Cathedral. The couple will celebrate their marriage with friends and family .’
Mr Johnson had previously left his mother’s Catholicism, getting an aide while in Eton.
A picture of the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus looks over the altar in the cathedral’s Lady Chapel, in which the few were wed..
1 guest explained Ms Symonds as appearing’really happy’ and Mr Johnson as’quite clever and dapper….he did not take his eyes of her’.
A marquee was later seen from the Downing Street garden, with reports of guests starring Don McLean’s hit American Pie.
Big Issue vendor Adrian Richmond, 52, who had been at the region which the time of this weddingtold The Sun:’Someone I recognise came from a ceremony there earlier in the afternoon and said,”You won’t believe who is getting married here ” He stated,”It is Boris Johnson”.
‘My jaw almost dropped to the ground. This is slap bang in central London.’
He included that the PM’deserved some pleasure’ after heading ‘so much’ together with his coronavirus hospitalisation this past year.
Even though their official guest list remains under lock and key, Mr Johnson’s dad, Stanley, was photographed out No10 last night along with his daughter Julia, soon after attending the ceremony.
Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster was the first political strategy to deliver her best wishes, composing on Twitter:’Huge congratulations to Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds in your wedding ‘
I want the Prime Minister and Carrie nicely, and hope he’s time to get a honeymoon!’
However, Labour former frontbencher Jon Trickett said that the wedding was’a great way to spoil this week’s terrible news’ about Mr Cummings’ testimony, the spread of this Indian coronavirus version and the row regarding financing of the Downing Street apartment.
Meanwhile, shadow justice minister Karl Turner staged that weddings were supposed to be’happy occasions’ but folks were asking’who compensated’ since they supposed the PM was up to’some type of’ fiddle’.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News had had not been invited to the marriage ‘
‘It is an excellent feeling as you come together and naturally it’s a fantastic thing for each of them that they’ve actually sort of made their marriage vows to one ‘
He said he wouldn’t’extrapolate’ in the time that the numbers of people which may be encouraged to weddings won’t be improved from June 21.
Until yesterday’s ceremony, the couple was the very first unmarried couple to live in Downing Street.
Ms Symonds, that becomes the next Mrs Johnson, announced their participation on social websites in February 2020, in precisely the exact same time as she revealed her pregnancy.
It’s been suggested previously that Ms Symonds couldn’t develop into a fully-fledged’first woman’ before the few proved wed..
Mr Johnson was coy when asked about the topic in 2019, telling colleagues that union speculation was’a very small bit early’.
The union to Ms Symond’s is Mr Johnson’s third, after that he had been married at age 23 to Allegra Mostyn-Owen at 1987.
Their marriage was annulled in 1993 after it appeared that he had been having a affair with youth friend Marina Wheeler who wed in 1993.
Nevertheless, they split in 2018. Their divorce was finalised later he came in Downing Street at 2019.
Mr Johnson had affairs with three girls during their 25-year union.
The PM also includes a fifth kid, Stephanie Macintyre, with art adviser Helen Macintyre. It’s currently known if his kids attended the wedding .
In 2013 it appeared during a second court hearing Mr Johnson had fathered a girl through an adulterous liaison while Mayor of London at 2009.
Claims that Mr Johnson squeezed the intersection of journalist Charlotte Edwardes, in a private lunch in The Spectator magazine HQ shortly afterwards he became editor in 1999 overshadowed his very first Conservative Party conference as PM.
Ms Symonds, a former Conservative Party communications leader, was linked to Mr Johnson only months following the announcement of his breakup by Ms Wheeler.
She joined the Tory party networking system in 2009, initially as a media advisor, then head of air at Imperial campaign headquarters before the 2015 entire election.
Her affiliation with Mr Johnson dates back into the first years, having worked together on his powerful re-election bidding at City Hall at 2012.
However a row which saw police known as their house in the first phases of the leadership race provided a glimpse into the complex personal life about which Mr Johnson attempts desperately to prevent answering questions.
The couple was living together at Ms Symonds’s apartment in Camberwell, south London, before the well-publicised row captured by neighbors at June 2019.
After she announced the news of this involvement she captioned the romantic holiday picture, where he had been kissing her cheek:’I would not normally post this sort of thing on here but I still needed my friends to learn from me… a lot of you already know but for my friends who still do not, we have engaged at the end of this past year… and we have got a baby hatching early summertime’
Weeks after the couple was thrown into chaos since the Prime Minister put in intensive care with Covid and has been awarded a 50-50 chance of living.
The Roman Catholic church doesn’t allow divorcees to be wed in its own churches.
However, Catherine Pepinster, Catholic writer and broadcaster, clarified that as Mr Johnson was baptised a Catholic but wed in non-Catholic preferences, the church didn’t recognise his prior marriages.
‘They do not have to be annulled.
‘They did not occur, based on Roman Catholic canon law’
Downing Street declined to comment .
