Boris Johnson

At 59 years old, Boris Johnson has this physical status:

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, essay, and former journalist who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Speaker of the Conservative Party since July 2019.

He has been an MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015 and has served as an MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008.

He served as mayor of London from 2008 to 2016 and then as Foreign Minister from 2016 to 2018.

Johnson describes himself as a one-nation conservative. Johnson, who was born in New York City to upper-middle-class British parents, was educated at the European School in Brussels, Brussels I; Ashdown House; and Eton College.

He read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986.

He began his work in journalism at The Times but was suspended for falsifying a quote.

Early life

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born in Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, on June 19, 1964, to 23-year-old Stanley Johnson, then studying economics at Columbia University, and Charlotte Fawcett, a young feminist intellectual, born in Charlotte Fawcett. Johnson's parents had married in 1963 before moving to the United States. Charlotte and her son spent time in Summertown, a suburb of Oxford, in 1965, and Rachel gave birth to her first child, Rachel. The family lived in Crouch End, north London, in 1965, but they later moved to Washington, D.C., where Stanley had gained employment with the World Bank. Stanley began working with a population control commission and then moved the family to Norwalk, Connecticut, in June. Leo, a third child, was born in September 1967.

The family returned to England and settled into West Nethercote Farm, near Winsford in Somerset, Stanley's faraway family home on Exmoor in the West Country in 1969. Johnson was introduced to fox hunting in Scotland. His father was consistently absent from Nethercote, causing Johnson to be largely by his mother, aided by au pairs. Johnson was still a child and studious, and he was deaf, prompting several attempts to insert grommets into his ears. From a young age, he and his siblings were encouraged to partake in highbrow sports, with high success being highly coveted; Johnson's earliest recorded aspiration was to be "the king." The children were very close, having few or no friends other than their siblings.

The family migrated to Maida Vale in west London in late 1969, while Stanley began post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics. Charlotte and the children returned to Nethercote, where Johnson attended Winsford Village School before returning to London to settle in Primrose Hill Primary School. Joseph, Joseph, was born in late 1971 and was a fourth child and third son.

Stanley moved his family in April 1973 to Uccle, Brussels, where Johnson attended the European School in Brussels I and learned to speak French. Charlotte had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized with clinical depression, following which Johnson and his siblings were returned to England in 1975 to attend Ashdown House, a preparatory boarding school in East Sussex. He grew a passion for rugby and excelled at Ancient Greek and Latin, but corporal punishment terrified him. In December 1978, his parents' relationship ended; they divorced in 1980; Charlotte moved to a Notting Hill, west London, where her children stayed for a large portion of their time.

Johnson obtained a King's Scholarship to attend Eton College, a boarding school near Windsor, Berkshire. When he appeared in the fall term of 1977, he began using Boris rather than his first name Alexander, and he created "the eccentric English persona" for which he became famous. He converted from Catholicism to Anglican, and joined the Church of England. However, school students were concerned about his slumbery, complacency, and lateness, but Eton was renowned and well known. His friends were mostly from the wealthy upper and upper classes, with Darius Guppy and Charles Spencer as his first friends, who later followed him to Oxford and remained close friends into adulthood. Johnson excelled in English and Classics, winning awards in both directions, as well as being secretary of the school debating society and editor of the school newspaper, The Eton College Chronicle. He was elected a member of Pop in late 1981, the tiny, self-selecting class, and glamorous group of prefects. It was a point of rivalry with David Cameron, who had failed to enter Pop at the time. After leaving Eton, Johnson took a gap year to Australia, where he taught English and Latin at Timbertop, an Outward Bound-inspired campus of Geelong Grammar, an elite independent boarding school.

At Balliol College, Oxford, a four-year course in Classics, ancient literature, and classical philosophy, Johnson was awarded a scholarship to read Literae Humaniores. He was one of a generation of Oxford undergraduates who would later dominate British politics and media in the second decade of the 21st century, including David Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt, and Nick Boles, who went on to become senior Conservative Party politicians, with some of them being ranked among Oxford undergraduates. Johnson played for college rugby union while at Oxford, and was known as a tighthead prop for Balliol College's squad for four years. He joined the Old Etonian-ruled Bullingdon Club, an exclusive drinking club notorious for acts of vandalism on host premises. Many years later, a group photograph involving himself and Cameron in Bullingdon Club formal attire sparked a lot of negative press coverage. He began a friendship with Allegra Mostyn-Owen, deputy editor of Tatler magazine and daughter of Christie's Education chairman William Mostyn-Owen. She was a glamorous and well-known fellow student from his own social background, and they became involved while attending college.

At Oxford, Johnson was well-known and well-known. He co-edited the university's satirical journal Tributary, alongside Guppy. Johnson was elected Secretary of the Oxford Union in 1984 and campaigned unsuccessfully for the Union President's career-enhancing and significant position. Johnson ran for president in 1986 but his term was not particularly distinguished or memorable, and concerns regarding his professionalism and seriousness were raised. Johnson finally received an upper second-class degree, but was deeply disappointed that he did not receive a first-class diploma.

Personal life

Since Johnson was born in New York City to British parents, he first held British-American dual citizenship. In 2014, he denied a request for capital gains tax from the US tax authorities on a house that he inherited in the United Kingdom but which eventually paid. In February 2015, he declared his intention to renounce his US citizenship in order to demonstrate his allegiance to the United Kingdom, as he did in 2016. In both his newspaper columns and speeches, Johnson has a knowledge of French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin, and Ancient Greek. "The Godfather" is his favorite film, owing to "the multiple retribution killings at the end."

Purnell claimed that Johnson was a "highly evasive figure" in his personal life, who remained detached from others and had few if any intimate acquaintances. Johnson is more popular among acquaintances and relatives as Al (short for his first name Alexander) rather than his middle name Boris.

In 2007, Johnson said he had smoked marijuana before going to university. He has also stated that he had used cocaine. Johnson plays cycling, tennis, and pilates, and he was previously an avid runner before having to give it up due to knee injuries. Johnson's weight has fluctuated throughout his career; he was classified as obese in 2018 and overweight in 2020, and has talked about losing weight.

In Camberwell, South London, Johnson owns a £1.3 million buy-to-let townhouse. He bought the four-bedroom house with his then-girlfriend Carrie Symonds in July 2019. According to the register of MPs' interests, Johnson has a monthly income of at least £10,000 per year.

Johnson was baptized a Catholic and later confirmed into the Church of England, but he has said that his faith is "comes and goes" and that he is not a serious practising Christian. Wilfred, his son, was baptized Catholic in 2020, sparking rumors that Johnson had returned to Catholicism. On May 29th, 2021, Johnson and Symonds married in a Catholic ceremony at Westminster Cathedral. Johnson had to have his two previous marriages annulled due to a lack of canonical form in order to marry in the Catholic Church. Since he was confirmed Catholic but his prior marriages were not recognized by the Catholic Church, they are considered putatively invalid.

Pericles, the ancient Greek statesman and orator, is regarded as a personal hero by Johnson. "It is obvious that [Johnson] was inspired by the Romans and even more by the Greeks, and it has been rejected by the early Christians," Johnson's biographer Andrew Gimson writes about ancient Greek and Roman polytheism. Johnson sees secular humanism as more due to the classical period than to Christian thought. However, if you ask me if he had pre-Christian beliefs, which he denied, Johnson said, "Christianity is a wonderful moral system and I would think of myself as a kind of very bad Christian." There is no disrespect towards any other faiths, but Christianity makes a lot of sense to me."

Johnson married Allegra Mostyn-Owen, the granddaughter of art historian William Mostyn-Owen and Italian writer Gaia Servadio, in 1987. In 1993, the couple's marriage ended in divorce or annulment, and 12 days later, Johnson married Marina Wheeler, a barrister, daughter of journalist and broadcaster Charles Wheeler. Wheeler and Johnson's first child was born five weeks later. Marina Wheeler and Johnson have known each other for decades, and she and her future husband were at the European School in Brussels at the same time. They have four children: Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches, and Theodore Apollo.

Between 2000 and 2004, Johnson had an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt while it was its editor, resulting in a termination of pregnancy and a miscarriage. The News of the World revealed in April 2006 that Johnson was having an affair with Guardian journalist Anna Fazackerley. The pair did not discuss; Fazackerley was hired shortly afterward.

Johnson fathered a daughter with Helen Macintyre, an arts consultant, in 2009. The Court of Appeal released an injunction that barred reporting of his daughter's existence in 2013. The judge found that the public had the right to know about Johnson's "reckless" behavior. "The father's infidelities resulted in the birth of children on two occasions," a source said in 2013. Johnson said he had six children in September 2021, denying that any more illegitimate children existed.

Johnson and Wheeler released a statement in September 2018 announcing that after 25 years of marriage, they had split "several months ago" and had started divorce proceedings. They signed a financial deal in February 2020, and the divorce was finalized by November 2020.

Jennifer Arcuri, who wondered if her 'friendship' with Johnson was really an affair, said, "I think that goes without saying." But I'm not going to write about it." In an interview with the Sunday Mirror in March 2021, she went into more detail about the alleged affair, saying it lasted from 2012 to 2016.

Johnson was living with Carrie Symonds, Matthew Symonds' daughter and co-founder of The Independent newspaper, in 2019. Symonds had been with the Conservative Party since 2009 and was elected mayor of London as a result of Johnson's 2012. Johnson and Symonds announced on February 29, 2020, that they had become engaged in late 2019, and that Symonds was expecting a baby in early summer. Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, their son, was born on May 29, 2020 at University College Hospital in London.

On May 29, 2021, Johnson married Symonds in a private ceremony at Westminster Cathedral attended by 30 people, making him the first prime minister to marry in office since Lord Liverpool married Mary Chester in 1822. It was reported on July 31st 2021 that they were expecting their second child together after Carrie suffered a miscarriage earlier this year. Romy Iris Charlotte Johnson Johnson, their daughter, was born on December 9th, 2021, at an NHS London hospital.

Johnson is the eldest of Stanley Johnson, a former member of the European Parliament and a member of the European Commission and the World Bank, as well as artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett), the niece of Sir James Fawcett, a barrister and president of the European Commission on Human Rights, and a member of the European Commission on Human Rights. Rachel Johnson, a writer and editor, and Leo Johnson, a partner specialising in sustainability at PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Jo Johnson, an ex-minister of state and former Conservative MP for Orpington, who resigned from his brother's cabinet in September 2019 and is now a member of the House of Lords. Jenny, Johnson's second wife of his father Stanley, is Teddy Sieff's stepdaughter and former Marks & Spencer's former chairman. Rachel Johnson, who was a member of the Conservative Party from 2008 to 2011, joined the Liberal Democrats in 2017. In the 2019 European Elections, she ran as a candidate for Change UK. Julia and Maximilian, Johnson's younger brother, were also affected by his father's later marriage to Jennifer Kidd.

Wilfred Johnson, Johnson's paternal grandfather, served in Coastal Command during the Second World War. Wilfred Johnson's father, Ali Kemal, was an Ottoman Interior Minister and journalist who was a secular Muslim. Ali Kemal's father was a Turkish with roots in Kalfat, a village in central Turkey, while his mother was a Circassian supposedly descended on slaves. English, German, and French are among his paternal ancestors' languages; one of his German ancestors was said to be Prince Paul of Württemberg's illegitimate daughter and, therefore, a descendant of George II of Great Britain.

Elias Avery Lowe, a Russian Jewish immigrant to the United States, and Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, a Thomas Mann translator, are among Johnson's relatives. Johnson is a descendant of Anna Catharina Bischoff's seventh generation, whose mummified body was discovered in 1975 and identified in 2018.

An episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

Source

Early career

Johnson and Mostyn-Owen were married in West Felton, Shropshire, in September 1987, followed by a duet for violin and viola Allegra e Boris, who was specially ordered for Hans Werner Henze's wedding. They retired in West Kensington, west London, after a honeymoon in Egypt, when David Lloyd gained work for a management consultancy firm called L.E.K. After a week, he resigned as a consultant; he resigned after a week. He began working as a graduate trainee at The Times in late 1987, owing to family connections. Scandal erupted when Johnson wrote an article for the newspaper about Edward II's palace's archeological dig, but he erroneously attributed to historian Colin Lucas, his godfather. After the editor Charles Wilson learned of the situation, he dismissed Johnson.

Johnson gained employment on The Daily Telegraph's leadership-writing staff after meeting Max Hastings, the newspaper's editor, during his Oxford University Union presidency. His essays appealed to the newspaper's middle-class, middle-aged "Middle England" audience, were known for their distinctive literary style, abundant with old-fashioned words and phrases, and for regularly referring to the readership as "my friends." Johnson was appointed to the Brussels bureau of the newspaper to cover the European Commission in early 1989, and remained in the post until 1994. Jacques Delors, a strong critic of the integrationist Commission President, grew to prominence as one of the city's few Eurosceptic journalists. He wrote essays about euromyths such as the EU's decision to prohibit prawn cocktail crisps and British sausages, as well as standardizing condom sizes because Italians had smaller penises. Brussels had hired sniffers to ensure that Euro-manure odors remained the same, and that the Eurocrats were going to set the acceptable banana curve and vacuum cleaner strength limits, as well as the instructions for women to return their old sex toys. He said that euro notes made people impotent, that euro coins made people sick, and that a scheme to demolish the Berlaymont building was not feasible because asbestos cladding made the building too fragile to live. Many of his colleagues' journals were critical of his writings, arguing that they often contained lies intended to discredit the commission. Later that year, Europhile Centrist politician Chris Patten said Johnson was "one of the top proponents of fake journalism" in Europe. Following the Dunblane school massacre, Johnson condemned handgun control, writing in his column "Nanny is confiscating their toys." It's similar to one of those massive Indian programmes of compulsory vaping.

Andrew Gimson, a British biographer, said these papers made him "one of [Euroskepticism's] most popular exponents." According to later biographer Sonia Purnell, who served as Johnson's Brussels deputy, he contributed to make Euroskepticism "an exciting and emotionally resonant cause for the Right," although it had never been associated with the British Left. Johnson's columns established him as the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's favorite journalist, but her replacement, Europhile John Major, who spent a considerable amount of time debating what Johnson said, was outraged. Johnson's books contributed to tensions between the Conservative Party's Eurosceptic and Europhile groups. As a result, he acquired mistrust of several party members. His books were also a major factor in the formation of the EU-opposing UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the early 1990s. Johnson "was such a good reporter for us in Brussels that he dramatically influenced British opinion regarding the country's relations with Europe," Conrad Black, then-editor of The Daily Telegraph, said.

Allegra left Johnson in February 1990; after several attempts at reconciliation, their marriage was ended in April 1993. Marina Wheeler, a childhood friend, who had migrated to Brussels in 1990, and they were married in May 1993 at Horsham, Sussex, shortly after which Marina gave birth to a daughter. Johnson and his new wife settled in Islington, north London, an area notorious for its links with left-liberal intelligence. Johnson took a more liberal approach to topics such as climate change, LGBT rights, and race relations under the influence of this culture and his wife. The couple had three more children when they arrived in Islington, and they were all named Johnson-Wheeler. They were first sent to the local Canonbury Primary School and then to private secondary schools. Johnson, who was devoting a lot of time to his children, wrote Perils of the Pushy Parents – A Cautionary Tale, which was released to mainly critical reviews.

Hastings refused to be a war reporter again in London, instead promoting him to the position of assistant editor and chief political columnist. Johnson's column was recognized for being both ideologically diverse and specifically written, and he was named a Year of the Year Laureate at the What the Papers Say awards for being a Commentator of the Year Award. Some commentators slammed his writing style as bigotry; in several columns, he used the words "piccaninnies" and "watermelon smiles" when referring to Africans, argued for European colonialism in Uganda, and referred to gay men as "tank-topped bumboys."

Johnson, who had been involved in politics in 1993, outlined his desire to run as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 1994 European Parliament elections. Andrew Mitchell persuaded Major not to oppose Johnson's candidacy, but Johnson could not find a constituency. He then turned his attention to winning a seat in the United Kingdom House of Commons. After being refused as a Conservative nominee for Holborn and St. Pancras, his party selected him for Clwyd South in north Wales, first a Labour Party safe seat. He gained 9,091 votes (23 percent) in the 1997 general election, losing to Labour candidate David Cameron in six weeks of campaigning.

Scandal broke out in June 1995 when a video of a 1990 phone call between Johnson and his buddy Darius Guppy was released. Guppy said in the interview that his criminal dealings involving insurance fraud were being investigated by News of the World journalist Stuart Collier, and that he begged Johnson to provide him with Collier's private address, threatening to have the former beaten to the extent of "a few black eyes and a cracked rib or something like that." Johnson decided to hand over the information, but he was concerned that he would be associated with the attack. Johnson said he had not obliged Guppy's request when it was published in 1995. Hastings reprimanded Johnson but did not dismiss him.

In The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph's sister publication, which attracted mixed reviews and was often thought rushed, Johnson was given a regular column. In 1999, he was also given a column in the magazine GQ reviewing new cars. Johnson's behavior regularly offended his editors; the large number of parking fines he received while driving cars offended GQ workers. He was consistently late to publish his copy, causing some employees to remain late; some said that if they did not publish without his name, he would get angry and yell at them with expletives.

Johnson's appearance on the BBC's satirical current affairs programme Have I Got News for You in April 1998 earned him national recognition. Johnson was invited back to later episodes, as a guest host; for his 2003 appearance, he was nominated for the BAFTA Television Award for Outstanding Entertainment Achievement. Since those appearances, he was able to be recognized on the street by the public and was invited to appear on other television shows, including Top Gear, Parkinson, Breakfast with Frost, and Question Time.

Conrad Black donated The Spectator's editorship in July 1999 on the condition that he abandon his parliamentary ambitions; Johnson accepted it. Although maintaining The Spectator's traditional right-wing bent, Johnson acknowledged contributions from leftist writers and cartoonists. The magazine's circulation increased by 10% to 62,000 under Johnson's editorship, and it began to turn a profit. His editorship drew criticism, with some suggesting that under him, he avoided serious subjects, while others became alarmed that he was regularly absent from work, meetings, and events. He earned a reputation as a poor political pundit due to ineffective political forecasts in the magazine. Charles Wheeler, his father-in-law, and others have been chastised for encouraging Spectator columnist Taki Theodoracopulos to publish racist and antisemitic words in the journal.

Charlotte Edwardes of The Times alleged that Johnson squeezed her thigh at a private lunch in the Spectator's offices in 1999, and that another woman had told her the same thing. The allegation was denied by a Downing Street spokesperson.

Liverpudlians were wallowing in their victim status and then "hooked on grief" over the Hillsborough tragedy, which Johnson partly blamed on "drunken supporters." Tell MAMA and the Muslim Council of Britain that Islam has caused the Muslim world to be "literally centuries behind" the West in an appendix to a later version of his Roma book about the Roman empire.

Following Michael Heseltine's resignation, Johnson voted for Henley, a Conservative safe seat in Oxfordshire. He was chosen by the local Conservative party, but it was split on Johnson's candidacy. Some found him amusing and charming, but others disliked his casual attitude and a lack of knowledge of the local area. Johnson, who was boosted by his television fame, secured the seat in the 2001 general election with a majority of 8,500 votes. Johnson bought a farmhouse outside Thame in his new constituency, as well as his Islington home. Henley was a regular attender of Henley's social events and occasionally wrote for the Henley Standard. His constituency surgeries were highly successful, and he ran for office in order to prevent the closing of Townlands Hospital and the local air ambulance.

In Parliament, Johnson was nominated to a standing committee examining the Proceeds of Crime Bill, but he missed many of its meetings. Despite his reputation as a public speaker, Johnson's remarks in the House of Commons were generally dismissive; Johnson later described them as "crap." He received only over half of the Commons votes in his first four years as an MP, but in his second term, it dropped to 56%. He usually supported the Conservative Party of Government but in this period he rebelled against it five times. He had a more socially democratic attitude in free elections than many others who favor the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and Section 28's repeal of Section 28. However, Johnson had spoken out against plans to abolish Section 28, saying that it was "Labour's appalling scheme, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools." After initially saying he would not vote in favor of the government's plans to join the US in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he invaded Baghdad in April 2003. In August 2004, he endorsed unsuccessful impeachment charges against Prime Minister Tony Blair for "high crimes and misdemeanours" relating to the war, and in December 2006, he referred to the invasion as "a monumental error and misadventure."

Although labeling Johnson "inefably duplicit" for abandoning his pledge not to become an MP, Black decided not to dismiss him because he "aided promote the magazine and raised its circulation." Johnson remained editor of The Spectator, as well as writing columns for The Daily Telegraph and GQ and making television appearances. Friend, Voters, Countrymen, a 2001 book by Robert Gordon recounted the year's election, as well as Lend Me Your Ears' collection of previously published columns and papers. Harper Collins' first book, Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors, revolved around a Conservative MP's life and contained various autobiographical elements. Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli were exemplars who combined political and literary careers, responding to critics who claimed he was juggling too many jobs. He started running and cycling, and Gimson became well-known for the former that he was "perhaps the most popular cyclist in the United Kingdom."

Following William Hague's departure as the party's leader, Johnson endorsed Kenneth Clarke's nomination as the only candidate capable of winning a general election; the party elected Iain Duncan Smith. Johnson had a tense friendship with Duncan Smith, and the Spectator became critical of his party's leadership. Duncan Smith was fired from his position in November 2003 and replaced by Michael Howard; Howard voted Johnson to be the most popular Conservative politician in the country, and named him vice-chairman of the party, which is in charge of governing the party's electoral campaign. Howard promoted Johnson to the position of shadow arts minister in his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle in May 2004. Howard ordered Johnson to apologize publicly in Liverpool for publishing a Spectator article, anonymously written by Simon Heffer, acknowledging that the crowds at the Hillsborough tragedy contributed to the tragedy and that Liverpudlians had a preference for dependence on the welfare state.

Since 2000, tabloids announced that Johnson had been having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt, resulting in two terminated pregnancies. The allegations were first described by Johnson as "an inverted pyramid of piffle." Howard begged Johnson to resign as vice-chairman and shadow arts minister for publicly lying, but Howard dismissed him from those positions after Johnson was confirmed. Who's the Daddy, a comedy by Toby Young and Lloyd Evans, who appeared at Toby Young and Lloyd Evans' King's Head Theatre in July 2005, mocked the scandal.

Johnson was re-elected MP for Henley in 2005, boosting his majority to 12,793. Labour swept the election and Howard stood down as the Conservative leader, though Cameron supported David Cameron as his successor. After Cameron was elected, he named Johnson as the shadow higher education minister, acknowledging his student fame. Johnson, who is interested in downsizing university funding, approved Labour's proposed top-up fees. He ran in 2006 to become the University of Edinburgh's Rector, but top-up fees cost him his campaign, and he finished third.

The News of the World said in April 2006 that Johnson was having an affair with journalist Anna Fazackerley; the pair did not comment, and Johnson shortly thereafter began employing Fazackerley. In a charity football match last month, he attracted even more public attention for rugby-tackling former footballer Maurizio Gaudino. The High Commission in Papua New Guinea protested after he compared the Conservatives' often shifting leadership to cannibalism.

Andrew Neil, the current editor of The Spectator, dropped Johnson as editor in 2005. Johnson negotiated with The Daily Telegraph to increase his annual subscription from £200,000 to £250,000, averaging at £5,000 per column, each of which took up around an hour and a half of his time. The Dream of Rome, a popular history television show, was broadcast in January 2006; a book followed in February. After Rome, a sequel focusing on early Islamic history was released. He earned £540,000 in 2007, making him the UK's third-highest-earning MP of the year.

Source