Carrie Symonds

At 36 years old, Carrie Symonds has this physical status:

Carrie Symonds (born 17 March 1988) is the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's partner.

Symonds was the first unmarried spouse of a prime minister to live in ten Downing Street.

Johnson was married to Marina Wheeler, his second wife at the time.

Early life and education

Caroline Louise Beavan Symonds was born on March 17th, 1988, to Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent, and Josephine McAfee (née Lawrence), a lawyer for the paper. Anne Symonds, a BBC World Service journalist, and her paternal grandfather, John Beavan (at one time editor of the Daily Herald and later, a Labour Party MEP) and her paternal grandmother, Baron Ardwick, were among her paternal grandparents.

Symonds was the result of an affair between her parents, who were both married to other people at the time. Sheen, South West London, was brought up by her mother in East Sheen, and she attended Godolphin and Latymer School, an independent day school for girls from 1999 to 2006. She went to the University of Warwick to study Art History and Theatre Studies, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in 2009.

Public and personal life

Symonds was previously engaged with British political journalist Harry Cole.

She began an affair with British politician Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, in 2018 when he was still married to his second wife, Marina Wheeler. Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, and he and Symonds officially moved into the 11 Downing Street flat. She was the first unmarried spouse of a prime minister to live in Downing Street. Following her rejection of her visa application the following month, she was refused to enter the country due to her close friend Nimco Ali's visit to Somaliland, which the US considers to be part of asylum-restricted Somalia. On August 16, 2019, she made her first public appearance since stepping down 10 Downing Street, where she discussed what she terms the "gigantic" climate crisis.

During lockdown as part of the partygate controversy, she was issued with a firm penalty notice for breaching COVID-19 legislation on April 2022.

Concerns over her influence as a prime minister were raised in January 2020 when it was revealed that she had received briefing from animal rights campaigners just before the government halted a proposed cull of badgers in Derbyshire. The NFU's farmer group, a farmer group, said that this meeting and her clout played a vital role in the government's rejecting scientific evidence in favour of keeping the cull. According to The Guardian, a judicial inquiry was granted permission to investigate how the decision was made. Lee Cain did not get a job as the prime minister's chief of staff, and she recommended that Boris Johnson dismiss Environment Secretary George Eustice from his position. She was also active in a political controversy surrounding the renovation of the 11 Downing Street flat, as well as her remarks about the apartment's decor as a "John Lewis furniture nightmare" (John Lewis, aspired, upper-middle-class store) leading to allegations of snobbery.

During Dominic Cummings' time as prime minister, Cummings and Carrie Symonds were reported to represent two distinct factions in influencing the prime minister. The prime minister "cancel[led] an inquiry into a leak because it could possibly put his girlfriend's friends in jeopardy," Cummings said; Henry Newman, the senior advisor on Downing Street and ally of Carrie Symonds, was accused of being a "chatty rat" who leaked plans for a second lockdown in October. Cummings revealed in 2021 that Symonds acted "illegally" in awarding lucrative jobs to her associates, including press secretary Allegra Stratton.

Caroline Nokes, a Conservative MP, said that Carrie Johnson's fame has been exaggerated for sexist reasons; she has been likened by her peers to both Lady Macbeth and Marie Antoinette ("Carrie Antoinette" to her opponents. Marie Le Conte wrote in The Sunday Times that such criticism is sexist. On the other hand, journalist Sarah Vine said that while "blaming the woman is a good thing," the truth is "far more difficult," adding that Johnson's head does not have to be "on the block."

Politico Europe named her as one of the year's top "disrupters" in December 2021's annual list of 28 people who will influence Europe in the coming years.

Carrie Johnson's spokeswoman denied that Johnson has power over her husband in the face of allegations from Tory peer Lord Ashcroft, who had written an unauthorised biography of her. "I approach politics on the basis that we should treat people with kindness," Labour leader Keir Starmer said in relation to the book. "I accept differences of opinion, but I do not agree with the belief that we should drag everybody into the gutter."

Boris Johnson, who was then his mistress, was identified as a candidate for a £100,000 per annum job in the Foreign Office in June 2022, according to an article by Simon Walters in The Times. The initiative was shelved after senior aide Ben Gascoigne threatened to resign if she were to resign if she were deployed. After No. 3, this story was scrapped from the paper. ten intervened, although Walters maintains he stands by the tale.

Symonds and Boris Johnson announced their engagement in late 2019. Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, Nicholas Johnson's son, was born in London on April 29th, 2020. She used to be a practicing Catholic and had her son baptized into the Catholic Church.

Boris Johnson was married in Westminster Cathedral on May 29, 2021, amid a tense reception attended by thirty people. Christos Costarellos, a Greek designer, wore a boho-chic style bridal gown. She revealed in July 2021 that they were expecting their second child together, while simultaneously revealing that she had suffered a miscarriage earlier this year. Romy Iris Charlotte Johnson Johnson, the family's daughter, was born in London on December 9, 2021.

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Career and political activism

Symonds set out to be an actor but failed to apply for the 2007 film Atonement. She then worked in marketing.

Symonds joined the Conservative Party as a press officer in 2009. She spent time at Conservative Campaign Headquarters and later campaigned for Boris Johnson in the 2010 London Conservative Party mayoral election. Symonds was instrumental in the campaign for newly elected MP Zac Goldsmith during this time. Sajid Javid (Communities, Local Government, and Housing Secretary) and John Whittingdale (Culture, Media, and Sport Secretary) have both served as a media advisor for Conservative Cabinet ministers. Symonds was present when Whittingdale and others established the Conservative Friends of Russia (later called the Westminster Russia Forum and disbanded in March 2022) and has attended many of the Westminster Forum's meetings.

Symonds was elected as the Conservative Party's head of communications in 2018, but he resigned early this year after taking up a job in public relations for the Oceana Project. With poor results and allegations of significant unjustified expenses claims, she was reportedly asked to resign as director of communications, according to Conservative Party sources in the Daily Mail newspaper. These allegations were reportedly spread by an anonymous "longtime colleague" who was later dismissed by Crosby as a smear campaign that was allegedly funded by Symonds' political strategist Lynton Crosby (who later denied by Crosby).

She is a member of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation.

Symonds, 19, was driven home from a King's Road nightclub by taxi-driver John Worboys, who was jailed in 2009 for numerous sexual attacks on his passengers. She later remembered Worboys' champagne and vodka, which she said was spiked, and began "vomiting and laughing hysterically" after returning home, before passing out at 3 p.m. the next day.

Symonds was one of fourteen people to testify against the Worboys during his appeal. She told The Telegraph later that she was "a sad, wicked man who is a danger to society." I'm so angry that he pleaded not guilty and made us go through the agony of giving evidence in court.

Symonds was one of Worboys' victims and she's promised anonymity to talk about her time and, later, protest against his early release, which led to a favorable judicial review of the decision.

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